We're All Messes
by forevermissingclaudiaZ
Summary: Coming back to Port Charles took more bravery than she actually had, but arriving meant finding something she had never had before- a friend.
1. Month 4

As the plane got closer to the ground, she became more and more jumpy. This calculated move she was making was becoming more and more risky by the second. She didn't know if this was the right move after all, coming back to the place that she had once loved, where she had once lived. Her life was there, she had made a name of herself. Well actually it was her family's name that had made her known, but her reputation preceded her. She was maybe semi-well liked when she had returned to her family, but by the time she had left things had changed. She had made mistakes, a lot of mistakes, but she had been alone and scared. That was how she had left this town she once called home: alone and scared. But little did she know when she left town she wasn't alone at all.

"Mommy?"

Her four and a half-year-old daughter, Ellie, calls out to her and manages to break her of her thoughts. She reaches down to make sure her daughter's seatbelt is secure and then brushes some of her dark raven colored hair behind the little girl's ear. She watches the little girl smile up at her and her dimples pop out- those are all from her father and she knows it. She wonders how he's going to react to all of this- her coming back and their daughter, he didn't even know she existed. She can picture his face now- full of rage, but pieces of happiness. He loved his children more than his own life and she had always promised that she would not keep his child away from him, but she had done just that. But that wasn't why he was going to be furious.

"What's wrong, El?"

Her mom's voice is soft and gentle; it's the only voice she's ever known her mom to have. In her four years on this earth, she's never heard her mom yell, not even at her uncle for bringing over his old friends to play poker when it's late at night. She's not sure why they're on a plane or why they've been on a plane for so long, but she trusts her mom.

"Your legs keep shaking, it's rocking the plane more than the pilot, mommy."

She plants a kiss on her small daughter's head and smiles at her. She knows her nervous energy is rubbing off on her precious daughter, but she can't help it. This trip was out of the blue. She had finally garnered up enough courage to go back to a town that hated her and to face the man that abhorred her. She felt awful, because she was bringing Ellie along as a shield, but she couldn't go anywhere without her daughter. She had never been away from her daughter.

"Mommy's sorry, baby. I'm just very nervous."

"Cause you're gonna see daddy again?"

She grins at the small child. Ellie had spent all of her life around adults and because of it she was so very keen to picking up on adults' cues. She hated that Ellie knew just by looking at her face and her body language how she was feeling. Because of this, everyone joked that Ellie would grow up to be a therapist, but that was a long way away, they had to survive this trip first.

"Yeah it's that and a lot of other things. Mommy hasn't been here since before you were born and for me that was a long time ago. I was a different person before you were born, you made mommy a better person."

Ellie grins at her before grabbing her mom's arm as the plane starts descending through the air. They both watch as the city of Port Charles comes closer into their view. She can't stop her legs from shaking now and she wonders how any of this is will turn out. She wonders if she'll ever be able to return home with her daughter after this trip. She wonders if her bravery will ruin life as her daughter has known it for the past four years. She moves up the arm bar that separates them and pulls her daughter into a fierce hug. She kisses the top of her head and then rests her cheek on it.

"I'm so sorry."

Ellie doesn't hear her mother and instead continues to hold onto her until the plane lands. She lets her mother lead her off the plane and to the baggage claim where their bags have yet to arrive. Her mom picks her up and rests her on her hip; her hands automatically go around her mom's neck while her head rests on her shoulder. Ellie looks out of the airport windows and sees the sun shining outside, but inside she feels like it's time for bed. She lets out a loud yawn just as the conveyor belt starts and suitcases start traveling.

"You're tired, aren't ya, El?"

She feels the child nod on her shoulder. She doesn't have time to respond, because she sees their oversized suitcase coming toward them, she had to pay about two times the normal fees because of the weight of it alone. So it's not surprise to her when she struggles to lift the suitcase off the conveyor belt with Ellie in her arms.

"Here, let me help you."

A familiar male voice calls out from behind her. She watches as he pulls the suitcase off the belt for her and places it in front of her. His eyes meet hers and she feels like her cover may have been blown; he may recognize her right here in the airport. She has to bite her tongue in order to not call him batman, because maybe Prince Nikolas wouldn't remember her after all.

"Do I know you? You look really familiar."

She smiles kindly at him and takes note of the small family behind him. She recognizes Spencer, even though five years have certainly changed him, luckily he can't remember her- he was only three at the time. She doesn't recognize the woman or the baby in her arms, however the ring on her hand certainly has a royal sparkle. She breaks out in a grin. When she had met Nikolas he was still trying to get over his dead fiancé, Emily. There had been a spark between them, but he was so fragile that it never mattered, plus she was too dark for him- he needed someone with light to offset the darkness that was within him. He had done well for himself. A wife and another son, she was truly happy for him.

"I get that a lot, but I can't say I know you. Anyways, thanks for the help, we're kind of over packed, if you can't tell."

He smiles at her and nods. His wife calls him, they have to go, they supposedly have a family get together that they need to get to. She watches as he rolls his eyes and she smiles. That was always what he had wanted, she knew that. He wanted to settle down and give Spencer a real family, because his little prince deserved that much.

"Yeah, it was no problem. Anyways, I hope to see you and that cutie pie around town."

She watches as he walks away and for a split second she wishes it was her, she wishes she could give her daughter the stability of a real family, but instead Ellie only has her and her great uncle. But then again, she had never had a true family either and she had kind of turned out okay. She feels Ellie giggling and looks down at her.

"What's so funny, Ellie bug?"

"He said I was a cutie pie."

"You are a cutie pie, silly. Come on, lets go get a car and blow this popsicle stand."

She manages to pull the suitcase behind her while still holding Ellie all the way to the rent a car station. When she gets to the kiosk, she puts Ellie down and grabs her hand. She pulls out her fake id and hands the woman her credit card. She gets a car that has a car seat for Ellie and will blend in with the normal Port Charles clientele, the windows are tinted and it feels safe to her. She thanks the woman, picks up her daughter, grabs the luggage and heads toward the car. She pulls her sunglasses down off her head She puts Ellie down by the backseat passenger door.

"You stay right here, mommy has to put the suitcase in the trunk."

She pops the trunk and struggles to lift the suitcase into the trunk. She wishes that Nikolas was here to lift it for her, or Johnny. She wishes Johnny was here, period. Johnny didn't know she was alive, didn't know he had a niece. He didn't know any of it and she missed him more than anything. It had been hard for her leaving five years ago in the dead of night with Uncle Rudy's goons. They had saved her from being buried alive and had gotten her to a doctor that was able to help her while also making sure her baby was okay. She was scared that once she showed up on Sonny's doorstep he would have her killed even though Ellie only knew her. But she had to do this, because she couldn't let him think he won. They had feelings for each other at one point after she had saved his life at the mob meeting, but she knew neither of them would have those feelings when he saw her and their child standing in his living room. She just wanted Ellie to know her family.

Finally she gets the suitcase in the trunk and looks to see Ellie still holding onto the car door. She didn't know why she was so paranoid. Everyone believed her to be dead and even if they did realize it was her, they probably would soon enough. She opens the car door for Ellie and lifts her small body into the car seat. She kisses her daughter's cheek and looks into her brown eyes; she gets those from her father too. There was no mistaking that Ellie was a Corinthos.

"You ready Ellie bug?"

"Yes, mommy!"

Claudia is close to tears, when she had lost her son close to six years ago, she thought that was it. She though for sure that there was no way she would have another child, but then about a year later she gave birth to Ellie at a hospital in Milan. She was five pounds and six ounces of perfect and from that point on everything was to be about Ellie.

"I love you, baby."

"I love you too, mama!"

She closes the door and goes to the driver's door. She takes a deep breath before starting the engine. She's not sure what she'll find at Greystone Manor. Will she find Kate or Olivia or Carly in the spot she once held? She knew he would move on, of course, their marriage, especially at the end, was nothing to mourn for and she was not someone he would mourn for. She still shuttered to think of the awful things she had been accused of and done, but that was the old her. Ever since becoming a mom, she had changed, everything in her life was about Ellie- no one else, including herself, mattered.

Finally she puts the car in drive and leaves the safety of the airport to go down the all too familiar roads that lead to her ex-husband's house. She looks into the review to see Ellie jamming along to the CD she had played. Claudia smiles, this was going to be the best thing for her.

* * *

She's surprised that Ellie is still awake when she pulls into the manor's driveway. A new fear envelops her. What if the guards stop her at the door and don't let her in? She steels herself for whatever is going to happen. She is strong and she's knows that she can handle this no matter what happens, plus the gun that's attached to her body helps a little bit. She gets out of the car and grabs Ellie from the backseat. She knows her daughter probably wants to walk, but holding her means that a quick getaway, if necessary, is possible. As she gets closer to the door, she realizes the guards are busy carrying out boxes of Sonny's good alcohol. The fact that they're distracted makes it very easy to slip into the living room where a guard is carrying out the last of the alcohol. Claudia raises an eyebrow as a blonde woman, who is not Kate, watches the alcohol go. Finally their eyes meet and Claudia watches as the blonde's eyes shift to Ellie.

"Who are you?"

Claudia is amused, for as long as she's been in the mob world she's never heard of this blonde who has captivated Sonny's attention, which is why she's asking. However, on further examination, Claudia realizes why this woman may be in Sonny's home- the blonde is pregnant. Claudia grins, Sonny was never one that could keep it in his pants.

"You're in my house, shouldn't I ask who you are?"

Before Claudia can answer, she hears his voice and her stomach feels like it's sinking. It's the voice that once caused her so much pain and heartache. The one who knew exactly what to say to make her attack. They had once promised each other after their son died that they would stop verbally sparring one another; it had only lasted a few months.

"Ava, how many times have I told you- you are a guest in my home and are not meant to be rude to other guests."

He stops dead in his tracks when he sees who is standing by his desk. His eyes, just as Ava's had, travel to the small olive-skinned, raven-haired child in his ex's arms. He knows without a doubt that she is his child then when she smiles at him and her dimples pop out, he knows for sure. The anger has dissipated in him from the years that he thought Claudia was "dead". The coma had not set Michael behind, instead it had only pushed him forward to a life outside of crime, he wondered if he had Claudia to thank for that.

"Ava, as in Ava Jerome?"

The blonde smiles, shoots a pointed look at Sonny and crosses the room to shake her hand. Claudia shoots out her hand that isn't holding Ellie to shake Ava's hand. She secretly wonders if Ava and Sonny hate each other as much as she and Sonny once hated each other.

"Ava Jerome at your service and you are?"

"Claudia Zacchara. It's nice to meet you, Ava."

"It's nice to meet you as well."

She smiles as much as she can even though Sonny is watching her like a hungry animal. She shifts her hand back down to her side, so it's closer to her gun and watches as Ava's eyes widen in recognition. She realizes that her name still precedes her, even though she's supposedly dead.

"El, that's your daddy, his name is Sonny."

The silence is thick and Ellie shifts in her mother's arms before yawning again. Claudia plants a kiss on her daughter's cheek and Ellie reciprocates the love. Sonny has to stifle the grin that is forcing its way to the surface; he remembers what he said to her the night of her birthday party. He told her how he was glad their son had died so he didn't have to suffer by having his mother be Claudia. He hadn't regretted it after the fact and as the years had passed, he had barely though about it, but now as he stood a good twenty feet from his ex-wife and his newly found daughter, he regretted it.

Ava on the other hand smiles sadly at the picture before her as her hands automatically find their way down to her growing middle. She'll never get a chance to love her child the way Claudia is right in front of her. Sonny is going to kill her the second the baby exits her body and everyone knows it.

"So Ava, you and Sonny are having a baby."

She says it without question, even though she would like to question what Ava did and why all the alcohol was getting hauled out of here. Claudia could really use a drink right about now. She watches as Ava and Sonny make eye contact just for Ava to quickly snap her eyes down to the floor. There was no fighting for dominance in their relationship like there had been in Sonny's and Claudia's, Sonny was clearly in control here.

"Well, yes, maybe."

Claudia laughs to herself and can't help but take a shot at Sonny.

"Well when you go to get the paternity test make sure Sonny drives you home. Accidents tend to happen when the mothers of his children are driving alone."

Ava looks back at Sonny and sees his eyes shift to the ground in shame. She wonders how Claudia manages to have that kind of power over him. She realizes that there is history between them and Claudia is capable of taking cheap shots at her ex-husband. For once Ava smiles, she's found someone who can control Sonny and may actually be on her side.

"Claudia…?"

Since the first time he saw her, he finally speaks. His voice is exactly how she remembers it, strong but soft, that makes you weak in the knees. But she doesn't falter, not anymore. He doesn't have that kind of power over her anymore.

"Yes Sonny?"

He doesn't want to have this moment in front of Ava, but he doesn't want to take the time to dismiss her. He needs to know the truth about the small child in Claudia's arms.

"Is she mine?"

His eyes land solely on Ellie, who is now fast asleep in her mother's arms. He notices how Claudia rolls her eyes, like he's asking a dumb question.

"Do you really have to ask? You know she is. Her name is Ellie, she had a rough flight, and she's exhausted, she was too intrigued by the sights outside of the window to sleep."

"Why don't you take her upstairs? To your old room, no one's been in there since you."

Ava stands between them, watching the back and forth that's taking place, it's like a power struggle. She had done her research on Sonny, but Claudia's name had barely come up except for the fact that they had married as part of a business deal. There had to be more history than that, however.

"How do I know that once I put her down you won't kill me like you didn't have a chance to five years ago?"

He lets out a sigh of frustration. Ava's eyes grow wide.

"If I wanted to kill you still, I would've done so already."

Claudia rolls her eyes at Ava, making Ava smile. Something is oddly familiar about this woman, she feels like maybe they could get along.

"Can't we just sit down? She'll freak out if I'm not there when she wakes up."

Sonny nods and sits in his chair. Memories flood his brain. Like the time they returned home after she had fallen down the stairs to find the house redecorated- it hadn't been changed since then. Or when she stood behind his chair and felt their son kick for the first time. Or the night they made love in front of the fireplace. He finally realizes how much time they spent together in this very room. He watches as Ava sits as far away from him as possible without giving away the animosity between them to Claudia, but he has a sinking suspicion that she already knew, she liked to feed off of the animosity between others. He watches as Claudia walks over to him and gingerly places their little girl in his arms. He smiles at her before focusing completely on the small child in his arms. She looks like them, a perfect mix of the two of them. He runs the pad of his thumb down her face and feels the silkiness of her dark hair tickling his arm. She felt small for her age, but she fit perfectly in his arms.

"So why are you on house arrest?"

His head shoots over to Claudia who is now sitting next to Ava, their bodies turned toward the other and Claudia's back is completely facing toward him. Ava looks over at him, as if she's asking him for permission to talk to Claudia. He can physically feel Claudia roll her eyes and groan in annoyance.

"No, no, don't ask him for permission to tell me your dirty little secret. I'm good at keeping secrets believe me. Actually, you know what, Sonny why don't you go put Ellie upstairs to sleep and then make some food. I'm sure she'd like to try your famous lasagna or baked ziti."

She smiles sweetly at him and for some reason he's inclined to follow her instructions. Ava needs to eat for the baby and Ellie needs to eat, mainly because Claudia said so. He lets out a huff of frustration before getting up to take his daughter upstairs. Once the girls are alone, Claudia lounges on the couch and takes in the room around her. Sonny hadn't changed anything, except for moving his desk.

"Alright, come on, Ava. What's going on? The tension between you and Sonny is palatable, and I know tension. So what did you do?"

"I killed Connie."

Claudia's eyes grow wider.

"Connie as in Kate Falconeri? You didn't!"

Ava's smile grows as Claudia claps her hands almost in delight. But then the moment passes when Claudia realizes what her killing Kate means.

"It was for business, you understand that, right? I mean you're a mob princess, you know how this business works. I was protecting my brother at the time."

"I completely get it, I mean years ago when Sonny kidnapped my little brother, I was furious and the only thing I knew to do was strike back. I mean Johnny, he was my world back then, my saving grace and when Sonny took him I went crazy. I knew Sonny could kill him whenever he felt like it."

The story intrigues Ava, everyone had heard of the love between the Zacchara Siblings. Everyone knew Claudia would do anything to protect her kid brother. She had always admired the relationship, mainly because Julian had never had that kind of protective instinct when it came to her.

"What happened?"

"He returned Johnny, but I couldn't let it go. Johnny came back to me after being tortured and Sonny wasn't going to get away with it. I ordered a hit on him, paid a doctor-slash-drug dealer by the name of Ian Devlin to take him down at his warehouse. Next think I know Devlin is firing when Sonny's kid is in the warehouse- Michael, you've probably met him. The bullet ricochets and hits Michael in the head, which put him in a coma for a year. But here's the kicker, that December my father decides he'll give our organization to Sonny if he marries me."

"Did your father know that you had a part in Michael's shooting? Did he not know that arranged marriages were no longer in style?"

She looks incredulous and Claudia laughs at her.

"He knew, but his fetish was torturing his children, so me marrying the father of the kid in the coma was right up his alley. Anyways, the truth kept getting closer and closer to coming out and then I ended up pregnant."

"With Ellie?"

"No, it was a little boy, but I had a miscarriage after a car accident caused by Sonny's daughter, Kristina. See I was driving home from the paternity test I had taken, Sonny thought our son was Ric's, and Kristina was upset and came into my lane, when I swerved I flipped my car. Carly actually had to pull me out of the car before it blew up."

"So why did they try to kill you when they found out? Hadn't you paid the price? I mean Kristina killed your little boy, Michael was only in a coma for a year and now he seems fine."

"Sonny and Jason didn't work that way back then. I don't know who his new enforcer is, but I doubt it'll work that way for you. How'd Sonny even find out that you were the one who killed Kate? Man, that skinny bitch used to be awful to me when me and Sonny were married."

"Well of course, his dutiful ex-wife Carly found a recording of me saying that I was the one who killed her. She had to run right to Sonny with the news."

"Jesus, freaking Carly could never mind her own damn business. I mean I owe her for pulling me out of a car that was going to explode, but she always has to be in someone's business and she's always so sure of freaking Sonny's next move. Like Sonny's gonna kill you for this, Sonny's going to do this, blah, blah, blah."

Ava hits the couch cushion in excitement and then laughs at Claudia's impression of Carly.

"Finally someone understands! Everyone is either a saint in this town or nothing and Saint Carly knows all. God, I threatened to kill her, but then Sonny locked me in this damn house. He took away my phone, Claudia, he has this place on lockdown twenty-four seven. I threatened to give the baby alcohol poisoning, of course I never would, but he doesn't know that so he took all the freaking alcohol out of this house. I figure if he's going to kill me, I might as well make it difficult for him until then."

Claudia grins, knowing that if Sonny had actually known of her sins on his family, she would have done the same thing. Your brain automatically tells you to make the person's life a living hell no matter what. It makes you believe that if you cause enough trouble, your captor will free you. The thing was, Sonny would weather any storm if it meant getting vengeance for his precious Kate- Connie- whatever her name was.

"Who's the other potential father?"

"Morgan."

"Morgan as in Morgan Corinthos, little Morgan Corinthos?"

Ava laughs to herself.

"He's anything but little now, my friend. He's gorgeous and caring. We were actually dating, can you believe that?"

"No, I actually can't."

Ava doesn't mind the interruption, but instead continues.

"Well we were and we were actually in love. I know it seems weird, because I'm so much older than him, but I love the man. Sonny and I having sex was a mistake, a huge, colossal mistake. I slept with them both on the same day, both unprotected and ended up pregnant."

"So you're either carrying Sonny's child or his grandchild, that's hysterical, I mean not for you of course, but to the general public it's pretty damn funny."

"I think if I wasn't in the situation, it would be funny, but it's not. Morgan doesn't know I killed Kate, he doesn't get why I'm living with his father. When Sonny came to kill me on his island, he pointed the gun at me and all I had to do was shift the gun down to my stomach and he practically instantly recoiled. I felt so powerful, he couldn't kill me, but then he brought me back here and I was trapped."

"I get it, Ava, I do. I was you five years ago. I mean, sure Sonny didn't know my secret, but I sat on this very couch five years ago and was terrified of how my own husband was going to end my life, it was hell. But stop being so submissive and scared, damn it. You're doing a great job of making his life a living hell, but don't stop being a bitch too."

"I guess I should behave more like you?"

Ava and Claudia share a devilish grin and laugh.

"More like me, more like Carly, or Olivia or Connie. Whoever's bitch you wanna emulate, do it. For God's sake, Ava, you're the first woman I've found in this town that I may actually like, don't screw it up by behaving nicely. Cause if you start behaving more like me, then we could probably be BBFF's- best bitch friends forever."

Ava laughs at her comment, it was true, she had become soft and scared, but she would change it. Claudia turns her head as she hears ruckus in the kitchen and realizes Sonny must have dropped a pan.

"Look, will you go check on Ellie, I know I'm awful for asking a woman in your condition walk up all those stairs, but you know- oh well."

Ava rolls her eyes at her new "friend".

"Sure, whatever you say, bitch."

Claudia smiles.

"Thanks, whore."

Once Ava is gone, Claudia walks to the kitchen where she sees Sonny waiting on water to boil for the pasta. She pauses at the door.

"Is it safe for me to come into a room full of knives with you?"

"Yeah, I think you're pretty safe. Where's your new best friend?"

Claudia hops up on the countertop right next to where he's standing.

"She went upstairs to check on El for me, thought maybe if she bonded with our daughter you'd be less inclined to kill her."

He rolls his eyes, maybe Claudia hasn't changed, she's still a schemer just like she was five years prior to this talk. He has to agree with her logic though, he was so angry that Ava had killed Kate, but she was possibly carrying his child and then if she bonded with another one of his children, she would be harder to kill.

"Is that so?"

"I doubt you've changed that much in five years, so I was taking a chance."

"Jason personally put you in a grave, how'd you manage coming back from the dead?"

"You really think Uncle Rudy's men weren't watching, waiting for the moment to get me the hell out of there? They were, they pulled me from that grave so quick, put a Jane Doe in there. I mean how shitty would you have felt if you knew me and our baby died, instead of just me, especially after all those wonderful, glowing things you had to say about me at my birthday party."

"You're still a smart ass."

"You still state the obvious. I'm so shocked."

He pours the pasta in the boiling water and starts another pot for sauce and meatballs. She watches him carefully, just like she used to. The kitchen was his safe place; he retreated there when he needed to be calm. So, in the past, when she was allowed in his kitchen, she paid special attention to everything he did.

"You know her real name is Adela, after your mom, but I called her El since I found out she was a girl practically and then Uncle Rudy started calling her Ellie and it just stuck. I told her the good stuff about you and her brothers and sister, unless another secret child has been revealed to you that I didn't know about."

"Nope, for today just Ellie."

After a long pause and a stir of the sauce he was working on, he continued.

"And thanks for honoring my mom, I may have only said her name once to you in passing conversation."

"Like I didn't do my research before coming to Port Charles all those years ago, geez Sonny it's like you don't know me at all."

He grins at her as he pours the water out of the pasta. She lets him work in silence for a while, knowing that he needs it. The peace and quiet might even make him more willing to what she's about to ask him next.

"Sonny?"

He doesn't even look up from his sauce.

"What?"

"I know you loved Connie, but-"

"No buts, Claudia. Michael's shooting all those years ago was an accident, Ava killed Connie out of cold blood."

"It was business, Sonny! Come on, do you really want your kid to grow up without a mom? Or what if Morgan's the father? Do you really want him to have to raise your grandchild all by himself? What are you gonna do if the kid comes up to you one day after seeing that all of his friends with their moms and asks where his mommy is? Cause guess what, Ellie asked me that and it was a hell of a lot easier to say 'El, your dad is in Port Charles and one day we're gonna go see him' then it would be to say 'El, I murdered your dad'. I'm just saying, Sonny, take your head out of your ass and do what's best for your child or grandchild for once in your life. The world does not revolve around you."

He goes to slam his hand on the countertop by her leg when he hears Ava walking toward the kitchen. If, for some reason, Ellie was with her, he didn't want his daughter to see the angry side of him. He tried to shield his children from that side of him.

"Damn it, Claudia."

His voice is barely a whisper.

"Mommy!"

"I know you hate that I actually am being logical about this, but you should try it sometime. Maybe I'm exactly what this house needs."

She hops off the countertop and walks to Ava who is holding Ellie.

"Hi, baby girl. Did you have a nice nap? Did Auntie Ava wake you?"

She takes Ellie from Ava and kisses her daughter's forehead. She tickles her stomach and smiles as the child elicits a squeal. When she looks over at her new friend, she can see that Ava is smiling too. Maybe her and Ellie staying here for a little bit would be in the best interest of Ava and Sonny, both.

"No, I was awake, but confused so I laid there and then Auntie Ava came to get me. I asked her to carry me so she did."

"Baby, Auntie Ava really shouldn't carry you right now, cause she's already carrying a baby in her belly. So if Auntie Ava ever comes to get you again, you need to walk until she has her baby, okay? But after she has the baby she can carry you again, alright?"

"Okay, mommy!"

"Okay, tell your dad that he needs to hurry up and cook so we can eat. Until then we'll go into the living room and stay out of Sonny's way."

"Please hurry up cooking, daddy!"

"Will do, princess."

Claudia and Ava start walking away and Claudia can't help but see the look of amazement that is on her older friend's face. When they get to the living room, Claudia sets Ellie up with her princess dolls on the floor and the two adults sit on the couch.

"How do you even manage to control him like that?"

Claudia laughs and pats Ava's knee reassuringly.

"You stick with me kid and you might learn a few things."


	2. Month 5

_Hey guys! The response to this story has been insane, so I decided that this was going to become an actually story. It will follow Ava's pregnancy by month. So when Claudia arrived she was four months pregnant. Enjoy!_

* * *

**Month 5**

Claudia snuck into her daughter's room at four thirty in the morning. They had been living under Sonny's roof for two weeks and she had loved how close Ellie and Sonny had gotten. Ellie being here had also taken the pressure off of both Claudia and Ava. Claudia had been able to leave the house, get away from Sonny's overbearing personality, but Ava was stuck in the house. Sonny wasn't allowing her to leave or have a phone or even have access to a computer. Claudia didn't know how to help; she didn't know how to get Sonny off of Ava's back. All of these compiled issues were stressing Claudia more than she had ever been stressed in the five years since she left. Everyone wanted a piece of her daughter; Ellie's siblings, her father, even the guards. So four thirty in the morning was the only time Claudia had with Ellie that was exclusively hers. It didn't matter that her daughter was sound asleep, she would pick her up, take her over to the rocking chair that was in the corner of her room and they would just rock back and forth.

This morning was no different, but the weight of Ava's life was lying heavily on Claudia's heart. Ellie had fallen in love with Ava in the two weeks that they had all been living together, she obviously didn't know that Ava only had approximately four months left to live. Every time Sonny and Ava were in the room together, claws came out, whether or not Ellie was in the room. She didn't want to raise her daughter in this environment, but Ava needed her to stay, she needed her attitude and bitchiness.

"Oh, baby girl, what am I going to do? I need to save Ava, I was almost her, if Uncle Rudy hadn't stepped in and rescued me, we both wouldn't exist. Your dad would probably kill me if I helped her escape, though. And the paternity test is today. I don't know if it's better for the baby to be your dad's or your brother's. Why do people like us always end up in situations like this?"

She continues to rock her, she knows its around five now, but it's still dark outside. This room was supposed to be her son's; she thought it was perfect because of the large windows that allowed anyone to see the moon. The room had once caused her so much pain to be in, to even look at the door hurt, but now it was filled with a dresser and a rocking chair and a bed with fluffy pillow and princess sheets. The room had been painted a bright yellow when she had first brought Ellie here, Sonny insisted on it feeling like home to Ellie. She didn't know how she was going to tell him that eventually they had to do back, both of them had a life in Italy, they had a family there.

She runs a finger down the smooth, baby soft skin of her daughter's face, trying to memorize every part of her. She missed having her daughter all to herself, she knew it was selfish to keep her away, but all Claudia had known for the past four years was one-on-one time with Ellie. She kisses her forehead before getting up to put her back into her bed. She pulls the sheets and comforter around the child's small body and smiles. She's so peaceful, that's what she always wanted for her child. As she's standing in the dark she hears the floorboards outside of the door creak. Her body freezes as she listens carefully, the sounds head to the stairs and finally goes down the steps. She looks back at her daughter one last time before leaving the room without making a sound.

She's always been fleet of foot and quiet even while on the old hard wood floors of her father's house. It's come in handy when she's needed to be somewhere without being detected. The only time that was different was when she was pregnant, the added weight made her unbalanced and therefore made her loud. The house is dark, but she knows it like the back of her hand and when she makes it to the bottom of the stairs she sees that the kitchen light is on. She figures it's Ava, because it's the stereotype that pregnant women can be found in the kitchen. As she gets closer to the kitchen, she decides she should probably make her presence known.

"Ava?"

She finds her friend sitting at the table, pint of cookies and cream ice cream in hand. It makes her laugh and Ava rolls her eyes. Claudia takes the seat across and truly looks at her. She has dark circles on her eyes. Baby kicks and death threats are not exactly cohesive to sleep, she understands that. The kitchen is dim, Ava only turned on the light over the sink.

"Holy crap, Claudia, you practically made me drop my ice cream!"

Claudia busts out in laughter, but tries to keep it quiet. The rest of the house is fully asleep and unaware of the antics happening in the kitchen. That's Claudia's favorite part of the house- that it's so spread out that you can't hear what's happening from one room to the next.

"I don't know, you have a pretty good handle of it, don't know if you could ever drop it."

"Hey I may be being held hostage, but at least Sonny listens to me when I ask for ice cream. He even gets the right kind!"

They both grin at each other, but Ava's smile falls fast. She spoons the ice cream in her mouth at a quick succession and Claudia's smile turns sad. She sat at this same table almost six years ago, drowning her worries in a pint of ice cream as well, but no one was there to witness her downfall.

"You're nervous about the paternity test today, huh?"

Ava sets the ice cream down, resting her spoon in the container. Both her hands rest of her protruding abdomen; it's where Ellie likes to rest her head when it's close to naptime. Claudia wishes Sonny would walk in the scene just once of the three of them watching TV, Ellie with her thumb in her mouth with her head resting on Ava's stomach. She wishes there was something she could do to protect this woman.

"No. I mean what's the point in being nervous? The baby is either Sonny's or Morgan's, it's not like I'll even be alive long enough to hold my child. He'll probably just kill me then and there. Who cares about witnesses, right? He's doing the world a favor by ridding it of me."

Claudia scowls at her. They had been working on her bitchiness, but she still couldn't stand up to Sonny and that was the main goal.

"My Lord, Ava, stop that. What about Kiki or this baby? They need their mom. What about Ellie? I mean I think she likes you better than me most days. If Sonny does really kill you, I'm taking our daughter and going home, because you are the only thing that makes Port Charles bearable."

Ava smiles at her. She takes another spoonful of ice cream and lets out a yawn before speaking.

"The feeling is mutual. Why do you think I kept shooting people before you got here? I obviously was trying to reset the population of Port Charles. Maybe it worked, divine intervention replaced Connie with you!"

Claudia laughs while thinking about a week ago when Sonny and Ava were arguing like usual. He yelled something about Ava shooting Olivia and Claudia stopped the argument with her laughter. Sonny had glared and Ava had looked confused. Claudia looked up from her crossword puzzle to make eye contact with Sonny and tell him that it was because he had cheated her with the skank.

"And the only reason you think Ellie likes me more is because when people come over, they don't come near me and she doesn't like most of the people that come. They actually talk to you Claudia, obviously you've gained a heart during your time away."

Claudia sighs, it was true, even Carly had managed to be civil toward her, which made her wonder if she was more likeable than her past self. She didn't really care whether or not people liked her, but it was nice to walk around town and not get glared at. It was a big difference from five years ago.

"Damn it, I'm going to have to change that."

Ava grins.

"I like you the way you are, besides its really Ellie's fault."

Claudia nods, Ellie had made her better. She was more empathetic, more concerned with those around her. Ellie had softened her rough edges and everyone had noticed, especially those who had known her post-miscarriage. Even her ex-stepchildren were surprised. But she was equally surprised when Michael had come around to meet his new sister and he was actually nice to her. Morgan had come too and Ava had been right, he wasn't a little boy anymore. Instead he behaved like a jackass, just like his father.

"I'd want it to be Morgan's."

Ava is shocked by the change of pace of the conversation, but it's no surprise, Claudia often changed the topic of conversation with no warning. Conversations with Claudia always had a specific purpose. She never wanted to talk just to hear her own voice. It was refreshing for Ava.

"Why's that?"

"Sonny will hate you even if you're having his kid. He'll just hate you for the next four months. But Morgan, he has a weakness for you. When he came over the other day, I could see it. He kept glaring at Sonny, which, let's be honest, everyone should glare at Sonny, but when his eyes shifted to you they softened. He still freaking loves you, Ava, so hope it's his baby, because having his baby may save your life."

"You saw all of this while talking to Michael and watching them play with Ellie?"

Claudia grins.

"One of us has to be paying attention."

Claudia grabs a spoon off the countertop and tries to get a scoop of the ice cream. It's 5:45 in the morning and she figures Ava won't fight her on it. But her spoon is hit by Ava's spoon and the metals make a loud clashing noise. Claudia frowns, but then grins when she sees Ava yawning.

"My ice cream, Claudia. You can go to the store and get your own, I can't."

"Sorry, mom."

The mom comment is totally sarcastic. Ava is at most three years older than Claudia, but it's enough of a gap that Claudia makes fun of her for being "old". Ava leans back in the chair and Claudia can see she's getting tired again. Her eyelids are drooping and Claudia knows she'll be out like a light soon.

"Ava."

The pregnant woman jumps a little, but Claudia finds no enjoyment in it. If Ava hadn't already told her how she grew up, she would know that Ava did not grow up a mob princess. No matter what happens, you never jump, you never show weakness, because if you show weakness you're dead.

"Hmm?"

"Come on, I'll help you back upstairs, your appointment is at nine thirty. You can get two more hours of sleep. Sonny will be up soon and we don't want him pissed off that you've been up eating ice cream."

Claudia gets up and helps Ava out of her seat. The older woman has her eyes closed, she trusts Claudia enough to be led by her. Claudia leaves the ice cream for now, she's not going back to bed so she'll put it away when she comes back downstairs.

"Don't care what he thinks."

Claudia grins.

"That's right, you don't care."

She leads Ava through the dim house, the sun is starting to rise, barely, so the house is easier to walk through. The stairs creek under their bare feet, as do the floor boards on the second floor. Ava's room is clean, like she doesn't even live in it, except for the bed. The sheets are scattered and the comforter is bunched in places. Some pillows are on the bed, while others are thrown on the floor. Claudia knows that she has nightmares. Anyone who knows they're going to die in four months is bound to have them.

"Night, night, mom."

Ava doesn't even smile at the sarcasm, she cuddles into some pillows and is asleep in a matter of seconds. Claudia pulls the comforter over her body and straightens it, so that it doesn't look like she's had nightmares before leaving the room. She runs over to her room and gets changed for the day, grabbing her red stilettos but not putting them on. She throws her phone in her red leather clutch and walks down the stairs. Her shoes go on the floor by Sonny's desk and her clutch is laid on his desk. She can see the sun rising so she opens the terrace doors and goes outside. She leans against the thick, cement railing and watches. The world is quiet around her except for the birds chirping in the trees around her.

She looks at the lake where she went on the day of her paternity test. She knew this day would bring up painful memories for her, but she wasn't expecting to have so many issues. Her son's paternity results meant either a marriage with Sonny or a divorce. Any result Ava received meant the same thing: death in four months. She lifts her head as the breeze hits her. She loves the morning hours where there is peace and no Sonny and Ava arguing or Ellie needing her to do five thousand things- there is only her and her thoughts.

She knows he's behind her before he says a word, the way her stomach sinks and her breath intake is shallow. She feels his eyes on her back and she tries to act normal. Their relationship is complex at best. She's not sure if he likes her or loathes her or likes her around or wishes she was gone. She needs him to communicate with her. She sick of his eyes on her back, so she finally speaks.

"Why haven't you killed me yet?"

Her voice is strong and confident. He walks over to her and leans against the railing just as she has been doing. He's silent for a while and a part of her wonders if he's contemplating pushing her over the edge right now, but she doubts it. He's had two weeks, if he wanted to kill her, he would have already.

"Ellie needs you. I knew it from the moment I saw you in the living room. You're the only thing she's known for almost five years, what kind of father would I be if I took you away from her now. Besides, the shooting feels like a lifetime ago. Michael is fine, he was talking to you like it was the most normal thing in the world. You're not that person anymore and neither am I."

She scoffs.

"Yeah that's why you're going to kill Ava in four months."

"She killed Connie in cold blood, Claudia!"

"She was protecting her brother, just like I was! She was protecting Julian and I was protecting John. It's the business, Sonny, blood is what matters here. Make it stop, please, I refuse to raise my daughter where you and Ava yell at one another all the time. It's not good for her and it's not good for Ava and the baby."

"Why'd you even bring her here after…"

"After the way you treated me when I was pregnant with our son? Because as much as you hate me, I knew you'd love her and she deserved to know her father. Anthony tried to kill John when he was eight, he called me a million different horrible things, but I had faith that you would be good to her."

"I don't hate you."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it."

She turns her body away from him, signaling that the conversation is over. He watches as her eyes travel across the back yard. He remembers the day of her paternity test well, it's forever engraved in his brain. That day and her birthday are two days he'll never be able to forget.

"Claudia, about what I said at your birthday party-"

"I don't want to hear it, Sonny."

He lets out a loud sigh. He doesn't blame her for her hostility. It was a wall she had built up around herself to protect herself from him, specifically him. They stand in silence for the longest time or at least it feels like it for Sonny. He'll never get to that point with her where she'll even want him to trust her like she used to.

"Why are you coming today? I mean I know Ava is your friend or whatever."

"I'm not going to break her out of there if that's what you think. I wouldn't leave the country without Ellie even if it meant saving Ava, I couldn't. I'm going so she's not there alone, like I was, waiting for what feels like forever. I'm going so that someone is there to drive her home, so that I know her and that baby are safe."

They both know it's a cheap shot. Her snide comments to him are almost always about their son's death and even though he knows she doesn't blame him for it, the events surrounding the accident were very much his fault. He would be the one that would have to live with that guilt forever.

"Claudia-"

She pushes off the railing and gets in his face, dangerously close to his lips and they both realize it.

"You don't get to apologize to me. I just want someone to be there for Ava, like no one was there for me."

She checks her watch.

"I have to go wake up Ellie and take her to Carly's house so she can play with Joss. Carly said that if they really get along, she can spend the night, which may be good if there is a bunch of crap going down here."

She steps back, the temptation is gone and they revert back to who they are now. Angry and unforgiving, but wanting forgiveness.

"Tell her to have fun and that I love her."

"I will, I'll be back to pick up Ava."

He doesn't argue, instead he just watches as she walks away.

* * *

Claudia and Ava drive in silence to the hospital. The top is down on the car and the wind is blowing their hair everywhere, but they don't give a damn. Sonny and Morgan are waiting at the hospital, Ava refused to leave with either one of them and instead insisted on waiting for Claudia to come get her. Neither of the men felt the need to push her, Claudia truly wouldn't leave without Ellie, they knew that much.

When they get to the hospital, the entrances are guarded by Sonny's men. Claudia smiles as them and greets many of them by name, they're all of the old Zacchara guards. She puts this information in the back of her mind for later, maybe it could work for her advantage after Ava has the baby. They take the elevator up to the OBGYN floor and are greeted immediately by Sonny and Morgan. Claudia grabs Ava's wrist to direct her straight to the nurses' station to check in, they take her to a room and tell her the doctor will be there soon. She makes eye contact with both men and steadies herself.

"Both of you, out."

They look surprised but Claudia is pleased.

"What?"

"She said leave. First the doctor is going to do an ultrasound and maybe Ava doesn't want either of you in here for that."

Sonny looks pointedly at Claudia.

"What's the angle here, Claudia?"

"No angle, Sonny. Just a mother who wants her privacy and a friend who understands the need. Look you can come back when they run the test, I'll personally call you in, but for now just go."

Sonny grabs Morgan's arm and pulls him out of the room. The door slams shut behind them. Claudia's eyes shift over to Ava when she hears her laughter. She shouldn't be surprised anymore, because Ava is always laughing when it is least appropriate.

"Will you and Sonny please just have sex already?"

"What?"

"Oh come on, the sexual tension between the two of you is outrageous. I mean he hasn't had sex in five or so months, he has to be horny as hell by now. Maybe that will improve his mood and he won't wanna kill me after he gets laid."

Claudia rolls her chair over to where Ava is reclining and covers her eyes with her hands.

"Seriously, Ava? You have to be kidding me right-"

Claudia is cut off by the opening of the door. She watches as the woman that was with Nikolas at the airport walk in to the room. She's all smiles as she looks down at Ava's chart.

"Alright, Ms. Jerome, how are we feeling today?"

"Feeling pretty good, Dr. Westbourne."

_Westbourne._ Claudia puts that in the back of her brain too. Nikolas' new fiancé or wife with the last name Westbourne. Once Dr. Westbourne looks up from the chart, she makes eye contact with Claudia and recognition is shown in her eyes.

"You're the woman from the airport, with the adorable little girl."

Claudia smiles at her.

"And the humongous suitcase. You were with Spencer and Batman, I mean Nikolas."

"Wait, you call him Batman too? The first time I walked into his house, I called him that and he immediately responds that he has a butler named Alfred. Thanks for getting him used to the name so he took it better. I'm Britt Westbourne by the way."

Her hand shoots out and Claudia shakes it.

"It's really nice to meet you, I'm Claudia Zacchara. I must say, your and Nikolas' little son is precious."

"Oh, Ben, no, he's just mine. His father is Patrick Drake, he's a doctor here at the hospital."

Claudia nods.

"Yeah, I know Patrick, he's a good guy too. Well Ben is precious."

Britt smiles shyly.

"Thank you, he's my whole world. We should try to get Spencer and your little girl together for a play date or something. I'm sure she's much younger than him, but he hasn't been getting along well with boys his own age."

"I'm sure the little prince and Ellie would get along great. I'll steal one of your cards on the way out."

Ava clears her throat reminding the two that she is, in fact, still in the room and both women laugh.

"Sorry, Ava."

Claudia mumbles.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Ms. Jerome, that was unprofessional of me."

"It's quite alright and please call me Ava."

"Okay, well, you're here for an amniocentesis, so first we'll do a 3-D ultrasound, locate the baby's position and then preform the test. I know the main reason for the test is because you don't know the father, but this test is also good for other things considering your age."

Ava nods, her pregnancy is considered high risk and she understands that her baby could be born deformed, but she doesn't care. If she gets to live, she'll love her baby no matter what.

"Um, Britt, before the test we have to call the fathers in, but Ava just wanted to see the baby first."

"Okay, well let's see this baby then."

The ultrasound screen comes to life as a racing heartbeat floods the room. All three women's eyes are transfixed on the screen, on the little life growing inside of Ava. Tears spring forward before Ava knows what hit her, but she quickly wipes them away. Claudia smiles up at her and grabs her hand for support. A memory floods back of Sonny grabbing her hand when they saw their baby boy for the first time. It hits her all at once. She realizes that without the miscarriage she wouldn't have Ellie, but the lost still stings. She holds back her tears, though, she's going to protect Ava and this baby.

"Do you want to know the sex?"

Two weeks ago, Ava would have looked around the room to see what Sonny wanted, but now she is confident. She can make decisions all by herself.

"Yes."

Britt grins and looks at the ultrasound one last time to be sure.

"Looks like we have a little girl in there."

The doctor and the mob princess watch as the expectant mother wipes fresh tears from her eyes. Seeing the baby in 3-D made it more real. It makes her realize that she has to live so that she can raise this little girl, her second chance to be a better mother.

"She's healthy?"

"Well we won't know for sure until the test results come in, but right now she looks perfect. Claudia, if you want to go get the prospective fathers, the baby is in perfect position for the test."

Claudia nods, jumps up from her seat, and opens the door. She rounds the corner of the hallway and finds the two Corinthos men sitting at opposite ends of a very large couch. General Hospital has definitely redecorated since she's been here last. Morgan sees her first and gets up with Sonny following behind him. Claudia enters the room with the two men close by and sits back in the chair. She makes eye contact with Sonny and then Morgan. Sonny had glanced at the screen, but Morgan is transfixed by the baby.

"Is that the baby?"

He knows it's a dumb question before he even asks, but he doesn't know what else to say. Ava is truly growing a tiny human and he is amazed. To everyone's surprise, Ava is the one to answer him.

"That's my little girl."

Claudia watches as Morgan mouths the word "girl" like his whole world is falling into place. He still loves Ava, she knows it. They all watch as Britt retrieves enough amniotic fluid to run the correct number of tests and just like that the appointment is over.

"The test should be done in maybe an hour and a half. I'm assuming you all will be in the waiting area so I'll come find you."

Claudia smiles at the woman before looking back at Ava.

"My results took all freaking day, you're getting off easy."

Ava and Britt both laugh at her.

"I may have a little bit of a pull with the lab tech, may not be in the coffee importing business, but I know how to use my connections. Oh and Claudia, it was really nice to meet you, I'm sure Nikolas would be happy to see you again."

"Yes, I'll have to bring Ellie over to the island sometime."

With that the good doctor is gone. Claudia hands Ava a rag and she cleans off the gel from her abdomen. Sonny is at the door and Claudia walks toward him, but turns around to see Morgan grabbing Ava's hand to help her off the table. She makes eye contact with Ava and they share a slight grin when he doesn't immediately release her hand. The group moves to the area where Morgan and Sonny were sitting earlier and then the true waiting begins.

* * *

An hour and a half later, Britt returns with a sealed envelope in her hands. Claudia and Ava look at one another, not sure if they've been anxiously anticipating or dreading this moment. They allow Britt to lead them to a family room where they will told the news that will shape Ava's daughter's life forever. Morgan and Sonny automatically separate from one another, standing on either side of a coffee table, but Claudia and Ava stand together as Britt opens the envelope. They watch closely as her eyes scan all the information on the piece of paper.

"Well the good news, Ava, is that your daughter is completely healthy."

She breathes deeply, letting out air that she didn't realize was trapped inside her lungs. Her daughter is healthy and wasn't that really all that mattered? She could fight or deal with whoever the father was as long as her little girl was healthy. But she knows the two men in the room want other answers and she expects to hear Sonny's loud voice echo throughout the room, but instead Morgan's voice is heard.

"Whose the baby's father?"

Britt looks up from the test results and smiles.

"Well according to our lab, you are, Morgan."


	3. Month 6

**Month 6**

Claudia had been washing the breakfast dishes when she heard footsteps in the living room. She knows that Ellie and Ava are both taking naps and Sonny's at the office, so she's confused as to who is making noise downstairs. Ava was exhausted, because she hadn't been sleeping through the night at all, so she knows it isn't Ava. Ellie knew she needed to rest up, because her and her mom were going to take a boat ride over to Spoondemere, as Claudia had always fondly called it. She turns around when she hears a knocking on the doorframe, she smiles when she sees her former stepson standing there.

"Morgan, hey!"

"Hey, Claudia, um is Ava here?"

She attempts to not roll her eyes, Morgan doesn't know that Ava is trapped here, that she's not even allowed to leave to come to Wyndemere with Claudia and Ellie. She wishes that they would just tell Morgan the truth so that he can have his own opinion on the subject, but neither Sonny nor Ava think that is in his best interest.

"Yeah, she's upstairs napping. The baby has been in an awkward position or something during the night and she's having trouble sleeping so I sent her and El both upstairs to take a nap. Do you want me to go wake her? She'll probably only sleep for another ten minutes at most. Can I get you anything?"

She continues to wash the dishes, scrubbing particularly hard at the dried milk on the bottom of one of the bowls. Morgan takes a seat at the small table that sits in the kitchen and runs a hand over his face. Claudia watches from her peripheral vision and listens as he sighs deeply. This situation has got to be running the kid ragged.

"Can I get a beer?"

Claudia laughs to herself mainly, because even though Sonny had gotten rid of the alcohol, she had bought some beer yesterday just in case she needed to relax from the tension this house held. After Ellie went to bed of course. She nods at him and goes to the refrigerator to pull out a beer. She slides it across the table to him before sitting in the seat across from him. After he opens it and takes a sip, he speaks again.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to hate you or not. When I was a kid, you were always nice to me, but you put my brother in a coma and I lost a year with him. But you also gave me another little sister and you've been so good to Ava when dad and I have only treated her like crap."

"If you want to hate me, you can, I won't try to change your mind. I was an awful person before Ellie and I won't make excuses for that person. I love my brother, just like you love Michael and I think if you had been in my situation you might have done the same thing, but that's not me any more. So maybe you could hate the old Claudia, like I do, and like the new Claudia?"

He seems to consider this for a second and then nods.

"Yeah I think that could definitely work for me."

They smile at each other and then silence falls between them. She wants to tell him that Ava is in danger and she needs to get Ava and the baby to Italy or some other country so that Sonny can't hurt Ava, but she doesn't. She doesn't want to watch his life crumble around him as he realizes two of the people he loves most are murderers. She hears Ellie's voice and then Ava's and she realizes they're running out of time, especially since they should've left already.

"Look, Morgan, Ava is probably my best friend- the only best friend I've ever had and I need you to protect her, okay?"

He looks confused.

"Protect her from what?"

Ava is down the stairs and soon she'll be in the kitchen wanting to grab ice cream for a late morning snack.

"Just protect her."

"Mommy!"

Ava comes in carrying Ellie, her long legs wrapped around the top of Ava's stomach. Claudia gently grabs her daughter from Ava as her friend notices the presence of her child's father. Her eyes shift quickly to Claudia and Claudia only shrugs.

"Morgan…hi."

"Hi, Ava."

"Ellie what have I told you about Auntie Ava carrying you? You have to be careful because of the baby."

Ava steps in, kissing the child's temple and grabbing Claudia's wrist. Claudia isn't sure if it's because Morgan's here and she's worried or if she needed someone to steady her.

"It's my fault, after I brushed her hair, I picked her up, it was instinct. I promise me and the baby are fine. Ellie only weighs like five pounds anyways, so it's not big deal, right silly girl."

Ava tickles her stomach, making her squeal in delight. Claudia knows what this is about. Waking Ellie up from her naps, brushing her hair for her play dates, carrying her down the stairs; it's all because she doesn't think she'll have the opportunity to do these things with her own daughter. Claudia turns to look at the clock on the oven and realizes they needed to have left practically ten minutes ago.

"Ellie, say bye to your brother and Auntie Ava and go get your shoes on so we can go see Spencer."

Ellie quickly goes to hug her brother and then Ava before running from the room. Ellie and Spencer had had a play date a week ago at the park, while Claudia and Britt talked on a bench with the baby, Ben. But today they were going to the island and Claudia was abnormally nervous about seeing Nikolas for the first time with him knowing who she is. She grabs Ava's wrist before she leaves the room.

"Are you gonna be okay? Do you wanna see if by the grace of God you can come with?"

The last part is a whisper that Morgan doesn't hear, but he most definitely hears the first part. Ava nods at her and gives her a reassuring smile. Ava has no fear when it comes to Morgan, nor should she since she's having his baby.

"Yeah we'll be just fine. I may even eat something healthier than ice cream for lunch."

Claudia looks at her with fake horror, grabbing her chest as if she's really surprised.

"And I'm going to miss it?! Darn, play dates. Take care of her, Morgan. See you later, Ava."

Just like that, the once one woman wrecking ball is gone. Ava listens as Ellie squeals with delight and the front door opens and closes. The sound had become increasingly normal to her, especially since she only heard the noise, instead of being the one opening the door. She looks over at Morgan who is looking at her intensely, eyes practically boring holes into her side. She grabs some fruit and things from the fridge to make a smoothie. The blender covers up the silence for now, but she wonders what will happen once it's just them covering the silence.

* * *

"Mommy, that boat ride was so much fun!"

Ellie is walking beside her mother, holding her hand and grinning ear to ear. Claudia can't help but look over to the beach where Nikolas had fished her out of the ocean. There was history everywhere in this town for her, but for the most part she tried to ignore it all, it was in the past. Ellie is practically dragging her to the door and when they get there Ellie rings the doorbell, but Claudia grabs her hand before she rings it a second time.

"Sweetie, once is enough, okay?"

Ellie nods and then smiles as Alfred answers the door. Alfred almost instantly recognizes her and he lets a small smile slip.

"Ah Ms. Zacchara and the young Miss Zacchara, the family has been expecting you. They're in the living room, down the hallway to your left."

"Thank you, Alfred."

"Mommy this place is huge."

Ellie's voice is a whisper, but Claudia nods. They find the small Cassadine family sitting on the couch in the living room. Spencer jumps up as soon as he sees Ellie and runs to her. They greet each other quickly before Spencer turns to Nikolas.

"Dad, can I show Ellie my room?"

"Of course, just come back quickly, because we're having a living room picnic."

The kids run off, leaving Claudia standing at the doorway. She feels Nikolas' eyes on her and before she knows it, he's pulling her into a hug. She looks over at Britt, who is holding her son as if her fiancé isn't hugging another woman. Britt smiles at her and Claudia realizes it's okay to hug him back.

"I thought you were dead. I'm so glad you're okay."

He releases her. After Johnny and Lulu had broken up, they had practically lost contact, but if they ever saw one another around they would always catch up. The last time they had seen each other was after the miscarriage when she was going to get checked out by Dr. Lee, she had been a mess and he hadn't heard of what was happening. It was a very complex moment in their friendship, but they had always been good to one another.

"Well, surprise, I'm glad too. I'm also glad our kids seem to be getting along so well, since they are cousins after all."

Nikolas and Britt both look surprised, but then Nikolas realizes she's right. He turns to his fiancé to explain how their interesting family dynamic works. But Claudia thinks he needs to talk it out to make sense of it as well.

"Courtney, Spencer's mother, was Sonny's sister and Sonny is Ellie's father. I didn't even think of that. It's always good for him to have family around, especially since he hasn't been getting along with Cameron, Elizabeth and Lucky's son."

The last part is for Claudia's benefit, even though she thinks she already knew that. Britt waves her over to the couch so she goes over. The women knock shoulders as a greeting and then the attention is focused completely on Ben.

"Hey Ben, do you remember me? We saw each other at the park. Britt, I swear he's gotten cuter if that's even possible."

They smile at each other and Ben reaches out for Claudia, so Britt hands him over. Claudia misses Ellie being this small. She'd love to have another baby, but she's so focused on Ellie and saving Ava that there is no way she could manage having another baby, plus you need a man to do that.

"Hey buddy."

Nikolas sits in the chair closest to Britt and watches their interactions. It was strange for him to watch his fiancé and the woman he once had feelings for be friends. It was weird that Claudia's daughter was his son's cousin. Claudia being in his house while simultaneously being happy was weird for him. He could have fallen in love with her, if she had appeared in his life later when he wasn't still mourning for Emily on such a primal level. He's so happy with Britt and Spencer is so happy about having a brother and a mother figure. This is his family and it's perfect; he understands that, but Claudia was still Claudia.

Alfred brings the food in; it's sandwiches and other simple lunch foods. The adults listen as the kids run down the stairs, as if they could smell the food being brought out. The tables and chairs are pushed back and picnic blankets are laid out on the living room floor. Britt leans so that her mouth is at Claudia's ear.

"We have to do picnics inside, because the princes never want to eat outside."

Claudia laughs.

"Well they are princes after all."

The living room picnic ends up being fun, though, and everyone, especially the children, have a wonderful time. Claudia likes to look at Ellie and watch her as she interacts with Spencer. She never really had an overabundance of friends in Italy, which was another reason for coming back to the states. Ellie needed a real childhood.

And now she was finally getting one.

* * *

Once Ava's smoothie was done, she didn't know what to do. Morgan had finished his beer and was leaning on the refrigerator, also unsure of what to do next. But he was the one that came to her, so he knew he had to be the one to initiate the conversation.

"Wanna go to the living room? That way you can put your feet up."

He knows he sounds like a total idiot, so he's really surprised when she nods. She leads them to the living room where she does exactly as he suggested. She leans back on the couch and immediately puts her feet up. He's unsure where to sit but decides to sit next to her, even though that may not be the best idea.

"I just, I think we need to talk about what happens after the baby is born."

Ava tries to take a deep breath in without alarming him too much. How is he going to raise this baby by himself? How the heck is he going to handle the fact that his father killed her? Because she knows for sure that Claudia will be running to him to tell him. She has to play this off for now, she has to be helpful.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. We should have no uncertainty once she's here, we need to have answers now."

"I want you and our daughter to come live with me."

She looks shocked.

"Haven't you been living with Carly? I can assure you Morgan, she won't let me live in her house, grandchild or no grandchild."

Morgan grins at her, it's so weird that his mom is going to be a grandmother. It hasn't even really registered with him that he's going to be a dad, but he thinks he can do it. He's going to emulate Jax, because Jax was a great dad to him. He has a plan.

"Actually Michael set me up by having me renovate the Brownstone, where our grandmother used to live. I'm saving up money so that I can get a two bedroom apartment for us and the baby."

He grabs her hand, it's instinct to do so. He thinks he's still in love with her even though he hasn't really liked her recently. She betrayed him, with his own father no less, but they're having a baby. Their little girl would be there in three months and he wanted everything to be just right for his baby girl.

"Oh, Morgan."

She tries to not let the pain in her voice shine through. He's so good and she is so not good- she doesn't like to think she's evil, she's just made questionable decisions recently. But he wants them to make a life together and it's painful to listen to. She won't be here for them to be a family. It will only be the two of them, her daughter and the love of her life.

"And if you don't want us to share a bed, I can sleep on the couch and you can have the bed. We'll figure it out, but I want the three of us under the same roof."

He puts his hand on her abdomen and they both jump slightly as their baby girl kicks from inside Ava. Morgan is mesmerized and he moves his hand around to try and see if she'll do it again. Ava watches in silence as she breathes in the moment.

When it's time for her to take her final breath, this is what she'll remember. Not killing Connie or shooting Kate or having sex with Sonny in the Quatermaine crypt; but the time Morgan told her he loved her for the first time and this moment now where he's searching for his daughter's kick.

"You're going to be an amazing dad, Morgan. Our little girl is so lucky to have you as her father."

"I'm lucky to be able to share a daughter with you."

Their eyes are locked on the other. A war could be going on around them and they wouldn't know.

"I want it to be different with her, I wasn't a good mother to Kiki- I was so young and foolish and so selfish and now I just want this baby to have the best life possible. I want her to have the world."

His thumb slides across her abdomen, sending chills up and down her spine. She doesn't know how long they've been sitting here but it feels like an eternity, but in this moment she knows that eternity wouldn't be long enough for their little family.

"She'll have the world, you both will. Kiki is happy for us, by the way, I saw her the other day and gave her and Michael the news. They know we'll make this work and I know we will too."

Her hand cups his face, like it's the most natural thing to do, as if for the last six months he hasn't been ignoring her or telling her to abort their baby. She feels like they may be able to leave it all in the past, maybe they can start fresh, if Sonny doesn't kill her first.

"Morgan, I'm so sorry, what I did was so wrong and I should have never done it no matter what I thought was happening between you and Kiki. I don't know how you could ever forgive me, but I pray every single day that you do."

"I do forgive you, Ava, God I forgive you. I asked you to have an abortion and that was wrong, so wrong. I wouldn't be asking you to live with me if I didn't forgive you, if I didn't love you."

He leans and kisses her. It feels like everything is okay again, except that she murdered Connie and Sonny knows. Everything is okay, except for the fact that in three months when she gives birth to their daughter, his father is going to kill her. But they're kissing and their hands are holding each other and for a second she feels safe and loved and wanted. When the moment is over though, it's over and things revert back to what they once were.

"I have to go, work and stuff, you'll be okay here by yourself?"

She smiles at him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, Claudia and Ellie should be home soon."

He nods and then just like that he's gone. Her shoulders slouch, because she doesn't know what just happened. They were okay and they were kissing, things felt fine and then he just left. She rubs her hands over her large abdomen and smiles as her daughter kicks.

"We're going to be okay, me and you. Claudia will figure out a way to get us out of here, we might have to leave daddy for a little bit, but we'll be safe. Mommy and Auntie Claudia are going to figure something out, I promise, I'm not leaving you, my sweet baby girl."

* * *

"Ava, we're home!"

Claudia yells as she opens the door, kicking it closed behind her. Ellie is practically dead weight in her arms, because she's almost asleep. Her and Spencer had ran around the castle for hours, just chasing each other and laughing, while the adults had sat in the living room and talked. Claudia loved watching Nikolas with Ben and Spencer, even with Ellie; he was such a good dad.

Ava was still reclining on the couch when they walk into the living room her eyes are practically closed. Claudia laughs to herself, all Ava and Ellie do is sleep or at least that's how she feels, but she's okay with it. When Ava is awake, she's worrying, so sleep is the best thing for her right now. Claudia sits down beside her, putting Ellie down in the space between then. It's almost an automatic response for Ellie to curl herself around Ava and to rest her cheek on Ava's stomach. It's almost five o'clock and neither of them will sleep tonight if they take a nap now, but Claudia doesn't say anything.

"Hey."

Ava's voice is only a whisper, but a smile is playing on her lips.

"Everything good?"

"He still loves me, Claudia."

Claudia smiles.

"I hate to say it, but I told you so."

"How was the prince?"

Claudia had told the story to Ava of Prince Nikolas saving her life and how there had been a spark between them. Ava had asked her if she still had feelings for the Prince and Claudia had denied it; she didn't think she had feelings for anyone. Besides, even if there were feelings still there, Nikolas was engaged and in love with Britt and Claudia thought Britt was great, she couldn't afford to lose a friend over the Prince.

"He was very princely, but it wasn't like that. I admire what a great father he is, but that's it. How about you and El take a nap here on the couch? Sonny will be home soon and I'm sure he'll be happy to cook dinner."

Claudia goes to stand, but Ava grabs her wrist.

"Where are you going?"

"Just outside, if you need anything just yell, okay?"

Ava relaxes back into the couch and both her and Ellie are fast asleep in a matter of minutes. Claudia grabs the blanket off the back of the couch and throws it over them. She knows it's not really cold, but Ellie always liked having something soft to snuggle into. When she's sure they're okay, she goes out onto the terrace and feels the sun shine on her face. She slips off her heels and goes down the steps so that her feet are on the plushness of grass.

Back in Italy, their house is surrounded by acres of lush grass. Especially in the summer months, her and Ellie can be found running in the grass and admiring the flowers. It was one of their favorite things to do, because it was just them and Claudia always felt so safe with nothing but acres of grass and flowers surrounding them. She walks to the pond and sits on the dock-like structure that Sonny had built. She had been coming here often, because she felt closest to her son here. This had been the last place they were alone, the last place she had felt safe and he had truly been safe. She brings her knees to her chest and rests her chin on her knees.

"Hey baby boy."

They had never named him, but she always figured it would start with an M like Michael and Morgan's names did, that way he wouldn't feel so left out even though he was so much younger than all of his siblings. But she always referred to him as baby boy, because that's all he would ever be- he would never get the chance to grow up.

"Hope you're doing okay up there. I'm sure Lilly and your siblings are taking good care of you. It's been weird here, being in your room, but instead it's Ellie's room. You would've been such a good big brother. She's been hanging out with Josslyn and I'm so glad she has a friend, but Josslyn and you were supposed to born so close together. You should be playing with Josslyn; you should be here with me too. I'm so grateful for you sending me Ellie, because I was such an awful person even after you died. I tried to be better for you and then when you were gone, all my goodness just kind of followed out with you. I thought it would get better. I thought that year after year the pain would lessen and soon it wouldn't hurt me to think of you, but it still does. I love you so much-"

She stops when she hears a snap behind her. She wipes her eyes quickly and then turns to see Sonny standing there. She scoffs and rolls her eyes at him. He always interrupts her in these moments of solace. He sits down beside her, careful not to make skin-to-skin contact with her.

"You come out here to talk him?"

"I come out here to escape feeling like I'm being smothered in your house."

"Claudia, seriously."

"Yes, I come out here to talk to him. This was the last time that it was really just the two of us and we were safe. It's not a lot, but sometimes I just need to talk to him. Sometimes, I'm just so stressed by this situation that I need to talk to him. Are Ava and Ellie still asleep?"

He smiles and she feels her heart rate quicken. His smile was always her biggest weakness and the fact that their daughter has his smile doesn't help at all.

"Yeah, they didn't even hear me come in. How was the play date?"

"It was good, she adores playing with Spencer. They tire each other out too. It was nice to see Nikolas again, too, he's such a good dad to Spencer and Ben, you know his fiancée's son. I'm really happy for him, he got his life together, I never thought it would happen because he was so in love with Emily."

Sonny raises his eyebrows, slightly confused.

"I didn't know you and Cassadine were ever close…?"

She smiles as the memories once again flood her. She thinks he may be jealous, but she's going to play it off. Maybe his jealousy is a sign he's developing a weakness to her. Weakness is exactly what she needs right now.

"He saved my life a few times, he's always been good to me. Ellie loves him too, he's so great with her."

"I see."

Just like that the conversation is over. She knows for sure he's jealous now.

"So, grandpa, decided what you're going to do?"

"Nothing's changed Claudia, Carly and I will support Morgan as he raises his daughter alone."

She pushes herself up and walks toward one of the many trees that surround the pond. She's so angry that she punches the trunk of the tree, pain radiates through her hand, but she ignores it. How can he think that nothing's changed? Morgan and Ava are having a baby and that little girl needs her mother. She listens as he follows her, but keeps a semi-safe distance between them. He's close enough that he can practically feel her breath on him; he can smell her strawberry shampoo, and the fruity fragrance of her perfume.

"Let me see your hand."

"It's fine, my hand is fine. Do you not get that Morgan wants Ava to raise his daughter with him? Do you not get that Connie was just collateral damage in all of this? She was never part of this business and in the end that was her weakness and yours. You didn't protect her like you should've and that's why she's dead. It's the Michael situation all over again."

His finger is up, in her face, before he knows what he's doing. She sees all the anger written on his face and she shouldn't have said it, but she did and she will not apologize for it.

"Don't you dare compare this to the Michael situation! Connie is dead; Michael is here thriving and alive. A life for a life? I thought that was always how this worked, but please Claudia, you've been in this business so much longer than I have been, tell me how I should rectify this problem."

She shoves him back, he's too close to her face and he's slowly suffocating her.

"Damn it, Sonny! You wanna take your anger out on Ava, right? Because you feel like you failed your family. Connie was the great love of your life and you went through a bunch of stuff with her, yeah? You want an out; you want to blame someone else. Why wait?"

She grabs the gun out of his side holster, her fingertips grazing his side. She then forces him to wrap his hand around the gun and she pulls it to her temple. She prays to whoever is up there that he gets the point she's trying to make instead of actually blowing her brains out.

"Kill me, Sonny. I'm responsible for your son being shot, he was in a coma for a year, and he suffered because of me. Go ahead, shoot me, then you don't have to kill Ava. You can let her go, live with Morgan, they can be happy. You can raise Ellie all on your own."

Sonny throws the gun down, it almost goes into the pond. He's standing there, body heaving from the lack of oxygen. She wonders if he's been taking his bipolar meds regularly. She wonders why he didn't shoot her.

"Claudia, God! How could you even do that to me?"

"You hate me, don't you? Why didn't you just shoot me? I gave you a chance to kill someone you hate and you didn't take it, why?"

He gets dangerously close to her face and they both know it.

"When will you get that I don't hate you enough? Maybe not even at all."

His lips crash into hers and he pushes her against the tree that she punched earlier. It feels like they're who they were five years prior. With his dark and twisty personality and her scheming ways. They thought they both had changed, but instead here they are making out in his back yard. His hands are holding his lips to hers and her good hand is holding onto his neck. She moans into his lips, making him smile, but finally they are forced to break apart in order to breathe. Their lips are swollen and both are trying to shake off the warmth spreading from their insides. His hand cups her face while his thumb grazes her bottom lip. She pulls her face away from him.

"We really can't do that again. We can't get involved with each other. I don't want to do this just because me hanging around Nikolas is making you jealous and I'm trying to save my best friend's life. This won't work."

"It was working before I found out about the shooting and I've moved passed that."

"Yeah your anger for me transferred to Ava. We're not doing this, we can't do this."

* * *

Ava and Claudia are in the bathroom giving Ellie a bath. Really Claudia is giving Ellie a bath, while Ava sits on the closed lid toilet and just watches the almost five year old play with ducks and bubbles. At one point, Claudia realizes that Ava is staring out into space so she flicks some bubbles in her face. Ellie starts giggling and Claudia follows suit.

"Claudia!"

"Oh come on Ava, lighten up."

Ava reaches down and flicks some bubbles in Claudia and Ellie's face as gently as possible. She's careful not to get the bubbles in Ellie's eyes. All of the girls are laughing when Sonny comes to the bathroom door. They don't even realize he's standing there until he clears his throat. Ellie grins at him.

"Hi daddy!"

Sonny matches her smile.

"Ready to go to bed, sweet pea?"

She nods slowly. Ava reaches down to pull the plug on the bathtub the water quickly starts draining from the tub. She hands Claudia Ellie's towel and clothes while attempting to avoid Sonny's eyes at all costs. Claudia helps Ellie out of the tub, dries her off, and dresses her in her pajamas. She kisses her daughter's forehead and holds her close, her and Sonny make eye contact, but she looks away.

"Sleep tight my sweet girl. I'll see you in the morning. I love you."

"I love you too mommy."

Ellie turns to Ava and hugs her stomach first. Ava then picks her and kisses her cheek, Ellie returns the gesture. They smile at each other. Claudia can't help but glance over at Sonny and she sees that he is watching the exchange as well.

"Night night, Ellie bug. I love you."

"Love you too, Auntie Ava."

She skips over to Sonny and he picks her up. They watch the father/daughter duo enter Ellie's room and gently shut the door. Claudia gets herself off of the floor and puts all of Ellie's rubber ducks in the mesh bag. She then helps Ava up.

"See you in the morning?"

Ava asks her, as if she's not sure where Claudia will be from one second to the next. Ava continually wonders if her best friend will just decide to up and leave when the stress becomes too much to handle.

"Of course, can I come to your room after I get ready for bed? It's not like you sleep anyways."

Neither of them laugh, because it's not a joke, it's true. So instead, Ava just nods. The two part ways and go to their separate rooms. It takes maybe ten minutes for Claudia to do her nightly routine and head over to Ava's room. She knocks once before opening the door and stepping inside. Ava is already laying in her bed and she pats the spot next to her. Claudia flops down on top of the comforter next to her.

"What happened while me and Ellie were napping today?"

"I went crazy."

"Well that's no surprise to me."

Claudia gently swats her hand.

"Ava, I made him hold his gun to my head and told him to kill me instead of you."

"Jesus, Claudia, what the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I could get into his head and that he wouldn't kill you. I'm trying here, Ava, to do everything and anything to throw him off of his game. So I pulled his gun and held it to my head."

"Never do that again, seriously, Claudia, don't. Never again! Damn it. Can you imagine if he had and then Ellie and I had woken up to the sound of Sonny blowing your brains out? Never do that again, promise me."

"Fine, mom, I promise."

This time it's Ava's turn to smack Claudia's arm, but there's nothing gentle about it.

"Sonny kissed me, well more like Sonny and I made out."

"What?"

"Yeah and I don't know what I'm doing. God, we were toxic, Ava and if we go back to that. I can't do that. I know that I keep telling you to be a bitch and to make life harder for Sonny, but he makes me weak. He's my biggest addiction."

"Then I'll keep you sober, okay? You came here and made life so much easier for me, so I'll help you at least for the next three months."

"Ava, you're not going to die in three months, if so it'll be over my dead body."


	4. Month 7

**Month 7**

Ava hadn't been feeling well before dinner, so she had retired to her room early. This had left Sonny, Ellie, and Claudia to eat dinner around the table together. Claudia had wanted to beg her to stay and to not make her eat dinner with only Ellie as a barrier, but she had refrained. Ever since the incidence by the pond two weeks ago, she had been keeping her distance from him, afraid that any contact, no matter how brief, would result in them falling, more like crashing, back together. The dinner table was nothing but silence and Ellie slurping her spaghetti. There was sauce all over her white shirt, but Claudia shrugged it away when Sonny made eye contact with her about it. The kid was going to manage to make a mess no matter what and Claudia didn't see the need to make a big deal out of it.

"So, Thanksgiving is coming up soon."

Sonny breaks the silence, because he can't stand it. He watches as Ellie's eyes grow wide and she looks over to her mother. Claudia shoots him a glare and shakes her head at him as if he's supposed to know that he can't bring up which holiday is coming up next.

"Mama, that's Uncle Rudy's favorite holiday."

Sonny now understands now why Claudia is unhappy about him saying something.

"It is, baby."

"We have to go back home!"

Neither of them are expecting that and Sonny flinches when he realizes that his young daughter does not consider his home her home. She was just like Claudia. When they had first gotten married, it had taken him months for her to accept that this was her house too.

"Ellie, this is your home, too."

Sonny says softly, hoping that she agrees with him.

"Well, yeah, I guess, but Uncle Rudy is all by himself and it's his favorite day. He shouldn't be alone on his favorite day and you have Auntie Ava and Mikey and Morgan, but Uncle Rudy only has mommy and me. Mama, can we go back home, please? I miss Italy."

Claudia's eyes shift from Ellie to Sonny. She sees the hurt on her ex-lover's face and she can understand why he feels the way he does. She wishes he would understand that Italy was all Ellie knew and she adored her Uncle Rudy more than most people. Claudia was planning on staying if Ava lived, but she knew that the transition, even though they had been here for three months, would be hard for her young daughter.

"Daddy and mommy will have to talk about it, baby. You remember how long the flight to Italy is and I don't know if it's a good time to make the trip. I think Auntie Ava might miss us too."

Ellie sits for a second and thinks of her aunt that is resting upstairs. She doesn't want to leave her Auntie Ava or her daddy, but she misses her Uncle Rudy so much. They had never been away from each for any extended period of time until now. An idea pops in her head.

"We can take Auntie Ava with us!"

"Sweetie, Auntie Ava can't fly, because of the baby. Daddy and I will talk about it, okay? The holiday isn't until the end of the month so there's time to decide, right Sonny?"

This is the first time she actually addresses him and all he can do it nod at first.

"Right, right. Mom and I will talk about it and we'll tell you about it when we make a decision. Now, are you done with your dinner, because I do believe we had a daddy/daughter date with _Frozen_ tonight."

Ellie lets out a small squeal of delight. Josslyn had introduced her to the movie on one of their many play dates and since then she had been addicted to the movie. Tonight, it was Sonny's turn to watch it with her, every other night they have taken turns even Ava had pitched in. Ellie is practically jumping out of her seat with excitement.

"Hold up, let's get you into a different shirt before you go get spaghetti sauce all over the couches in daddy's theatre."

Claudia gently picks up her daughter, holding her dirty shirt away from her body, and walks into the laundry room that is attached to the kitchen. She listens as Sonny clears the table and puts all the dishes in the dishwasher. She's thankful for this small act, because she did not feel like doing dishes tonight. She sits Ellie on the dryer and smiles at her.

"Alright, arms up, baby."

She takes off the sauce stained t-shirt and replaces it. Then she gets out the Tide and practically drenches the shirt in it. Finally she throws it in the washer, along with the load she was going to do later that night, and starts the washing machine. She tickles Ellie's stomach and grins as she hears the child's laughter fill the room. She picks her daughter up and takes her into the kitchen, handing her to Sonny. Their hands graze momentarily and the spark is there but they ignore it.

"Enjoy the movie, baby girl."

She watches as they go and then turns to the refrigerator where the left over pasta is stored. She grabs the container and scoops a small amount onto a plate. She puts the pasta in the microwave and nukes it for thirty seconds. She's hoping that Ava has drunk all the water in the bottle she gave her and is ready to at try to eat something. She had barely eaten all day and Claudia was on the verge of asking Britt to come over here, but she knew that they were probably eating dinner or at this point putting Ben to bed. If something major were happening, she'd call Britt.

The noise of the microwave hitting zero brings her back to Earth. She pulls the pasta out and sprinkles some Parmesan cheese on it. The walk to Ava's room is full of prayers that she's feeling better, because something isn't sitting right with Claudia, but she can't put her finger on it. She knocks on the door once before speaking.

"Ava, it's me."

"You can come in."

Her voice is soft and when Claudia opens the door she doesn't have a better feeling. Ava is laying on her side with a pillow underneath her stomach for support and she looks like she doesn't feel good. Claudia rushes to her, putting the plate of food next to the bottle of water that is barely missing a sip in it. The back of her hand comes in contact with Ava's forehead, checking to see if she has a temperature, but her temperature doesn't feel high, but her skin is clammy. She gently pushes back some hair that had fallen in Ava's face, just like she does with Ellie when she's sick.

"What's up? Feeling really bad?"

She watches as Ava pushes back the plate of food that Claudia brought her. Claudia smiles and then puts the food outside of Ava's door. She sits back down on the side of the bed.

"I mean you've been pregnant before, with Kiki. Did you ever have this kind of thing with her? Did you ever feel sick like this when you were pregnant with Kiki?"

"No, never really got sick with Kiki, pretty much ever. Just not feeling good, probably from lack of sleep or something."

"You're probably dehydrated too, Ava, you really need to drink more water."

The older woman's eyes are drooping and that's when Claudia gets how tired she truly is.

"Yeah, water, I'll do that."

Her tone is sarcastic and Claudia rolls her eyes.

"No seriously, Ava, you need to drink more water. At your next appointment, I am making sure Britt checks your amniotic fluid level, because I feel like you haven't gained any weight in the last few weeks."

"Good Lord, Claudia, you make that sound like it's a bad thing."

"When you're housing another human being, it kind of is."

"Fine, I'll start tomorrow with the healthy diet and drinking more water. You might as well throw away my ice cream, because I'm not going to eat it anymore."

"Maybe you do have a fever after all. Only sick Ava would ask me to throw away her sacred cookie dough ice cream, I mean it's practically been as good as having sex for you the past seven months."

Ava grins at her, but her eyes are still closed and Claudia is still worried. At only twenty-eight weeks or seven months pregnant, Ava was still at risk for a lot of complications and with a baby born this early there was no way to tell if she would survive or not.

"One of us has to be getting some."

Claudia lets out a laugh at that comment. She thinks that if Ava is making her snide, sarcastic comments all will be well. She grabs her hand anyways and gives it a reassuring squeeze just in case Ava is worried and not letting on. Moments of silence pass, but it's not uncomfortable- it's just silence.

"I'm gonna call Britt, okay? I'll see if she can squeeze you in tomorrow just to check and make sure everything's okay."

She goes to get up, but Ava grabs her wrist.

"Baby's more active with you in the room. Can you just make the call here, please?"

Ava relaxes her grip on Claudia's wrist as she feels her best friend's weight slightly shift the bed. Her eyes close again as her hand gently rubs her stomach, probing for each movement of her little girl. Claudia watches her for a second before grabbing her phone from her pocket and calling Britt. The phone rings once before the doctor answers, her voice calming to the two women on the other side of the phone.

"_Hey Claudia! What's up, it's getting kind of late."_

Claudia shifts her eyes to the clock, where it shows her that it almost nine o'clock. She smiles to herself, it is late, but it's really not. Moms have different ideas of what is late compared to women who are childless. Gone are the days of clubbing and going to the bar at nine, here are the days of hoping your child goes to sleep at or around nine so that maybe the house will be peaceful.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just that I'm here with Ava and she hasn't felt well for a few hours, really the entire day. I was wondering if you could squeeze an appointment in for her tomorrow. Just to check and make sure everything is okay. I mean she's not cramping or anything- Right, Ava, you aren't cramping?"

Ava shakes her head in a definitive no.

"She isn't cramping."

Claudia hears Britt take in an uneven breath.

"_Is the baby moving like she normally does?"_

"Ava is the baby moving around like she normally does?"

Claudia looks over at her friend as Ava pauses to think, she runs her hands over her stomach one more time before answering.

"Not like normal, but I figured it was because I wasn't feeling well."

"Britt, did you hear her?"

"_Yeah, I did. I don't have any appointments first thing in the morning so bring her in then. It doesn't sound like anything too major, but I'd rather not take any risks for her or the baby especially with her age. Just make sure she drinks plenty of fluids, even if she doesn't feel thirsty, she doesn't really need to eat, it would be good if she did, but if she feels sick don't force her to."_

"Got it, sorry for calling so late, I just didn't know what to do. We'll see you tomorrow."

"_You were totally right to call, tell Ava I hope she feels better. See you tomorrow."_

Claudia shoves her phone back in her pocket and grabs the water bottle off of Ava's bedside table. She pulls the straw out of the bottle slightly and puts it up to Ava's mouth. Her friend only moans as a response for her frustration.

"Britt said you needed to drink, so please just drink a little and then I'll go to bed and be out of your hair. I just want you to be able to sleep some, okay? I'm worried over here so just humor me, because worry is not often a feeling I admit to having."

Ava takes a few sips of water and then leans back into the pillow cocoon she has created for herself. Claudia examines her closely, waiting for some sign that possible the water made her feel better. She hasn't fully formed a plan of saving Ava and she needs more time. There is no way Ava can be going into labor this early.

"Are you hungry? I'll get you anything you want."

"No, I really just wanna sleep. But when the kid kicks me in the bladder in the middle of the night, I'm calling you."

She opens her eyes briefly to see the worried look stretched across Claudia's face. She smiles at her and grabs her hand to put on her stomach right as the baby kicks. Sometimes she really does feel like the mother figure in their friendship, but she's okay with it. Claudia was insecure, but not in an upfront way, it was deep down inside of her and Ava also could see the scared little girl in there too.

"We're okay, go kiss my girl goodnight for me. If I need you, I'll call you, but I won't need you. We're good."

Claudia squeezes her hand reassuringly.

"I'll see you in the morning, Britt said we could come in when her office hours begin."

"Mmhm."

Ava mumbles her answer and Claudia smiles. She makes sure that the water is within Ava's reach and covers her sufficiently with the comforter before leaving. Sonny is walking out of Ellie's room just as she closes Ava's door. She grabs the plate of pasta off the floor and he stands there, watching her.

"She asleep?"

Claudia's voice is a whisper and she notices how surprised he looks that she's actually talking to him.

"Yeah, went down without a problem. Is Ava feeling any better?"

Claudia rolls her eyes, sidestepping him to be closer to the steps.

"Careful, Sonny, I might think that you care about what happens to Ava."

She hears him scoff as she walks down a few of the stairs, making sure no pasta spills off the plate.

"She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, you don't need to come with us."

Her tone is cold and then just like that she's gone, down the stairs to throw away Ava's uneaten dinner. He wants to roll his eyes and get pissed at her and yell at her like he would've done when they were married, but he doesn't have the heart to do that anymore. But he also doesn't want to care anymore.

* * *

Claudia has been restless all night, the time has seemed to pass slowly. Every time she turns to her clock on her bedside table and sees that only five minutes has passed- 2:45 AM. She groans into her pillow. Sleep hasn't come easily to her in the last three months, but especially tonight. All she wants to do is walk across the hall and talk to Sonny. They barely talked when they were married, but when they did things changed. She wants to talk to him about being alone and pregnant and getting the court room logs every night of his trial and feeling so guilty when Michael was sent to prison for "killing" her. But she can't open up to him like that and it's so late and she needs to sleep, so she turns onto her stomach and closes her eyes. Just as she feels like she may fall asleep, her phone rings.

Her body jumps as she grabs the phone from her bedside table. It takes a second for her eyes to adjust to the light, but when they do the screen reads _**Ava**_. She grabs her sweatpants off of the floor and steps into them while slipping on her flip-flops and grabbing her wallet. She runs to Ava's room and opens the door, not taking the time to knock to see if it's okay to come in.

"Claudia."

The name exits her lips as a moan of pain. Claudia is struck by terror but not frozen. Ava has an arm resting on each side of the doorframe that leads to her bathroom. Ava's cell phone is lying on the floor, abandoned in a moment of pain. Claudia runs to her friend, shoving her body under Ava's arm to help support her. Ava is even clammier from the pain than she was earlier in the night.

"There was blood and I'm cramping. I think I'm losing this baby."

Claudia is taken back to her fall down the stairs where she had said those exact words to Ric, the only man, at the time that cared about her baby boy. But she shakes the memory off, she didn't lose him then and Ava isn't going to lose this baby now.

"We're going to get you to the hospital, okay? Can you lean on me and walk?"

They start walking to the door, slower than Claudia had expected, but they'll be at the car soon enough. Claudia doesn't even allow her the time to put on her shoes before they are walking down the stairs.

"Need…to get…Sonny?"

"No, babe, we don't need to get, Sonny, we need to go. Sonny's a deep sleeper, he'll be useless for too long."

They get to the door, but Max stands as a brick wall separating them from Claudia's car. He looks conflicted, because he's not sure if this is just a ploy to get Ava out of here. But Claudia's face looks so serious and he doesn't think this is a trick.

"Come on, Max, something is wrong, let us go!"

Claudia's voice echoes through the house and at the moment she doesn't care is she woke up Ellie or Sonny. Ava may be losing the baby and she isn't going to let that happen. She had experienced that pain and wasn't going to let her best friend go through it. Even though she wasn't sure Ava would live long enough to grieve.

"I can't, the boss said-"

"Max, I'm taking her to the hospital. Do you want to be the one to tell Morgan that his daughter died because you were being a stubborn ass?"

Ava flinches as Claudia mentions her daughter's possible death, but Claudia knows she has to say something that will make Max be more helpful. Max moves to Ava's other side and helps Claudia get her to the car. Claudia nods at him to express her gratitude before running to the driver's side of the car.

"Wake Sonny and tell him what's going on. Make sure you stay with Ellie."

She's stressing more. It'll take at most ten minutes to get to the hospital and she's not sure Ava has that kind of time. She pulls her phone out and calls Britt, who does not sound happy when she answers. Claudia should've warned her that she was a difficult friend to have.

"_Claudia, seriously?"_

"I'm on the way to the hospital with Ava. She's cramping and bleeding and really clammy. Can you get there quickly?"

"_Yes, I'll be there as soon as possible. Tell her to try and stay calm, keep her muscles loose."_

The phone is hung up and Claudia knows it'll take at least five more minutes to get to the hospital, she's stressing. She reaches a hand over and grabs Ava's shaking hand. She squeezes it and tries to be as reassuring as possible. When it was her who rolled her car, her who needed to be pulled out of a car that was going to explode and her who needed brain surgery it was different. It is different before you have experienced a miscarriage, because before you have experienced it there is hope. But after, any pain immediately amounts to a miscarriage; at least that's how it was with Ellie.

"You just relax, okay? We're almost at the hospital and Britt is going to meet us, just stay calm for your baby girl."

"Claudia, if she dies…"

"She's not going to die, Ava."

They pull into the hospital and Claudia gets some nurses to help her get Ava onto the gurney. They pull Ava into the hospital and take her up to the maternity ward, then they hook her up to a bunch of things that Claudia is unsure of. She watches as they attach the fetal monitor, the baby's heartbeat is going strong, or at least she thinks- she was never good knowing if a baby's heartbeat was what it was supposed to be. She's knocked out of her thoughts as Britt breezes by her. She's never been so thankful to see her friend. She's standing at the doors as Britt starts barking orders for the nurses to start preforming tests and to get a ultrasound machine in the room as quickly as possible.

"What's going on?"

Just like that his breath is hot against her neck, but she's not distracted by him, but instead by her own thoughts. She can hear his and Carly's voices. _"She rolled the car?" "She rolled the car and it's bad, Sonny, really bad."_ She can hear her own voice too. _"Please tell me my baby's going to be okay."_ Ava's voice matches her voice of the past.

"Please tell me my baby's going to be okay."

"We're doing everything we can, Ava."

Claudia sucks back her tears, because this is not her, this is not five years ago. Ava will not lose this baby- she cannot lose this baby. She turns her head slightly so that she can see the father of her children he actually looks slightly concerned.

"Just go call Morgan and stay outta here, she doesn't need your presence causing unneeded stress."

She feels his body heat get further away until it disappears altogether. This is not the time for her to be concerned about him. Ava and the baby are what's important right now. She has to focus on them. She walks over and sits by her friend's bedside, grabbing her hand. She doesn't know what else to do.

"It's going to be okay. You just stay calm it's what's best for the baby. She's going to be okay."

"_You gotta stay calm, you heard what she said."_ She tries to shake off the memories and shoots a comforting smile to her friend. Ava looks at her like she might believe her and Claudia believes that maybe if Ava has a positive attitude things will be okay. They watch as a nurse comes in and hands Britt the test results. Claudia is amazed at how much this hospital has improved when it comes to turning test results.

"Britt, what's going on? Is the baby okay?"

"Well-"

She can barely start her sentence when Morgan comes barreling into the room, eyes wide and full of terror. Claudia quickly moves and positions herself at Ava's feet. Morgan shoots her a grateful glance as he kisses Ava's forehead and then sits in the chair Claudia had previously inhabited. Claudia takes note at how their fingers intertwine and Ava slightly calms. Britt looks over at Claudia, as if she needs a go-ahead to continue, so Claudia nods her head.

"Well Ava you are most definitely in early labor, but we're giving you some medicine for that and that really should stop it. When Claudia called, she said you were experiencing cramping and I'm thinking that's because you're seriously dehydrated. You have to start drinking more water, okay? We're hydrating you with some IV fluids. Your amniotic fluid was borderline normal, but now it is low. Did you feel any leaking possibly, like when you would stand up?"

Ava nods, mainly focusing on the fetal heart monitor to her right.

"Okay, we'll fix that tomorrow, hopefully. For tonight, I just want you to sleep. We'll be monitoring your contractions carefully and if anything seems to be getting worse, we'll up the dosage. Claudia, why don't you walk out with me?"

Claudia nods, grabbing Ava's foot and squeezing it slightly. Ava smiles at her.

"No more scaring me like that, mom."

Ava feels well enough to roll her eyes at Claudia, which makes the younger woman feel better.

"Thanks for being there for me, you saved her."

She nods and smiles slightly, before walking out of the room with Britt. Morgan grabs Ava's hand tightly, afraid to let go and possibly lose her and his daughter. When his dad had called him, he was so scared.

"Morgan…?"

"Yeah, I'm right here."

"I'm really glad you're here."

He leans over and kisses her lips gently, their lips are barely touching. He brushes her hair out of her face and smiles at her.

"Claudia told dad to call me, that friend of yours sure thinks on her feet. I'm just so thankful that our baby is okay. I mean Alice's heart situation was so scary and we didn't think she was going to get one, but having dad call me and tell me you were admitted was ten times scarier. I can't lose you again and I can't lose our daughter."

"She's gonna be okay, she's tough like her daddy."

"And her mom."

"Morgan, I'm…tired."

"Go to sleep, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be right here when you wake up."

* * *

"Claudia, thank God you got her here when you did."

Claudia looks at her slightly taller friend and makes a concerned face. She checks the area around them and notices that Sonny is nowhere to be found. She hopes that he went home to Ellie, because honestly she would be no use to her daughter right now, even though she doubts her little girl is even awake.

"Is it really that bad, Britt?"

They go and sit at a couch that is several feet from Ava's room and from the ears of others. Britt runs her hand through her hair, she regrets putting off showering until the morning, because she'll be at the hospital until her shift starts now.

"Yeah it really could have been. Her water partially broke, she was in labor and she was having other cramps that weren't part of the labor. Had either of you waited until when my shift started, I think Ava probably would have been delivering a stillborn. Now that we are giving her fluids though and she's resting she should be fine, but it was very touch and go. We'll do an ultrasound when I do my rounds. I'm gonna crash in my office, I have a spare couch if you want a place to sleep?"

Claudia shakes her head gently, she has other things she needs to do.

"Thanks, but I'm gonna stay close just in case either of them need me. I'm sorry for calling so early, I'm sure another doctor was on call, but in our line of work we only depend and trust so many."

Britt nods.

"It's fine, I'd rather treat my patients even when I'm not on call. Besides, you're my friend Claudia, our kids play together, I wouldn't let you or Ava down."

Claudia smiles as Britt leans to hit their shoulders together. Since the beginning of their friendship that was how they would say hello or goodbye, it just worked for them. Claudia watches as Britt turns the corner and then disappears out of sight. She's left alone with her thoughts.

* * *

The ER was entirely too quiet when Claudia stepped out of the elevator. One nurse stood at the nurses' station and he didn't even look up from his paperwork when she walked by. She flashes back and sees herself being pulled into the room on a gurney, purple sheet covering her body. She walks into the room, cubicle one, where she was before the surgery and sits on the bed; it's just as uncomfortable as it was five years ago. The room looks the same.

"_How's my baby? Did you find a heart beat?" _

She looks around the room, it's so different without the doctors running around, trying to get IVs and heart monitors attached. She told herself she was over the death of her son, but nights like tonight made her think of him more than anything else. Ava could have lost the baby and then it would have all been over.

"_The tests indicate there's a high risk of life-threatening head trauma."_

"_What are you saying? You're saying that Claudia and the baby could die?"_

She pushes her body up and off the bed. She's trying to shake off these feelings, but she knows she needs to go to the room next, the room where her son died, the last place she was pregnant with him. In the back of her mind she wondered where Sonny was, but as she opened the door to that empty room, the world melted away around her. All she can see is herself laying in the bed and Johnny sitting next to her, holding her hand and assuring her all was well.

"_Check out that monitor. My nephew's strong as ever."_

"_My baby's fine. Heart beats. Going strong."_

"_The baby's heartbeat has been at a steady decline since the accident. The most likely cause is detachment or tearing of the placenta."_

"_What are you saying to me, Kelly? John…what are you saying?"_

"_I'm sorry."_

"_You're sorry, huh? That's what you got for me, you're sorry?"_

"Claudia, what are you-"

"Shh."

She knows he's there, like he wasn't that night, but she wants to relive it, because it's not hurting and just once she wants to have this memory and not let it hurt her. So she puts her hand out to stop him from getting any closer. He just watches as the memories flood her face and soon she pulls him in too.

"_Our little boy is dying."_

"_You shouldn't even watch this."_

"_I... didn't think that I could ever love anything as much as I love the idea of raising this little boy. I wish that there were more memories so I'd have something else-you know, something more, to hold onto."_

"_You're a good mother. You know, no matter what, even the short time this baby had, you already proved it."_

When he looks at her she's not crying, she's not doing anything. Her hands are down at her side and she's just standing there, but he knows she doesn't want him close. Ava and the baby are okay, but at what cost? He's afraid that Ellie is about to lose her mother to a psychotic break, because they never really dealt with this. They, actually he, pushed it under the rug and wanted to pretend like it didn't even happen, but it did and it was his fault.

"_Come closer. I'm screaming on the inside."_

"_We watched his heart stop. And then I let some doctor come in here and scrape out what was left of him. No one can hurt me now. Nothing can be worse than that."_

He watches her and time stops. Before he can realize what he's doing he grabs her arm, trying to break her from her trance. She looks at him like he's betraying her in some way, but that was her all those years ago by not telling him she was the one responsible for his son's shooting. But that's over and Michael is happy and one of his other children killed their son. _A life for a life_. They're both silent, but his heart is racing. He pulls her close to him and kisses her.

This is not the same kiss that occurred at the pond. That one was born out of confusion and self-hatred and of fear. This kiss is born out of grief and sorrow. It's because both of them were there the moment their baby boy's heart stopped and he is so sorry that he caused her that kind of pain, even though she meant to get pregnant as insurance. He knew that she fell in love with their child and she was a good mother to him even though he barely had a chance to live. They barely want to break apart for air, but when they do Claudia does not push him away like she did last time.

"Sonny."

He recognizes the tone as the one she spoke when they were unsure whether or not her and their son would make it. She's pulling him closer and closer and he's responding- his need for her is primal. Their faces are close together, then he feels her tears on his cheek.

"I'm so sorry about everything."

"Make it up to me."

He knows what she means and then the atmosphere changes. He's kissing her neck and she's running her hands through his hair. He pushes her up against the door and pushes a small button that he believes to be a lock. It doesn't take long before Claudia has unbuttoned all of the buttons on Sonny's dress shirt and he has pulled her tank top off over her head. She pushes him over to the bed and they fall onto it together. They crawl under the stiffness of the hospital sheets before his fingers hook under the waistband of her sweatpants and they slip off.

They're crashing back together and Claudia can feel the tidal waves drowning them both.

* * *

He doesn't leave like he used to do after they had sex. He stays and wraps his arm around her and pulls her as close as possible. She barely breathes, hoping that he'll fall asleep and she can sneak off, but that doesn't seem to be the case because she feels him take a deep intake of breath and then start to speak.

"What was that earlier?"

"Well Sonny, I do believe they call that foreplay, which by the way you have definitely improved in."

He lets out an almost frustrated breath but a laugh follows and she knows she hasn't made him mad, not that she really cared. Their marriage had been about her walking on eggshells and she wasn't about to revert back to that.

"Before that, Claudia."

"I was reliving it, with Ava and the cramping, I couldn't help it. I want down to the ER and saw myself being pulled in on that gurney. I saw myself trying to sit up when the first test results came in and saw you put your hand on my stomach when it felt like someone was ripping my brain apart. Then when I came here, I heard Kelly telling me that the baby was dying and that even an emergency C-section wouldn't help, because he was too tiny. But it didn't hurt this time, because I have Ellie and Ava's baby is okay. It doesn't hurt anymore, but sometimes remembering what you said to me at my birthday party does. We were doing so good."

"You know that secret couldn't stay hidden forever."

She sits up, pulling the sheet around her bare body, and faces him while sitting cross legged.

"I know, I just figured I could get you to fall in love with me before finding out."

She grins at him and he returns it, but he knows for the most part that she's joking, but he decides to play along.

"Oh that was the plan, eh? It was a valiant effort then. Jason just had to ruin it. By the way, I take that stuff back. Maybe I was falling in love with you, which made it so much harder when Jason came to me with the proof. I was hurting, but I was also wrong to say it."

"It's fine, Sonny. I… I should've left town after the miscarriage, we both would've been better off."

He sits up and reaches to put his thumb under her chin in order to lift her head and her eyes.

"None of us would be, certainly not Ava. You've been really good to her."

Claudia's eyes go wide as she reaches down to grab her discarded sweatpants. Inside one of the pockets is her phone and she notices that it's almost time for Ava to have the ultrasound. She gets dressed at a lightening speed and her hand is on the handle when Sonny speaks up again.

"So you're going to be the one that leaves this time?"

She turns around and smiles at him before walking to him and kissing him softly. The kiss still manages to make his heart race, but then she pulls away and walks back to the door, opening it.

"Ava has an ultrasound, I'm a good friend, remember?"

He laughs slightly as she leaves and the door closes behind her. The silence is welcome, but he knows that he needs to get dressed and get home to Ellie, to explain why no one else is home. He didn't want her to be afraid because her mom wasn't there. As he buttons the last button on his shirt he thinks of what just occurred in this very room.

What had he gotten himself into?

* * *

She knocks on the door twice before opening it. Morgan is nowhere in sight but Ava is wide awake flipping through the channels. The older woman doesn't even look up to see who is at the door, mainly because she had already figured it was Claudia.

"You're all buddy buddy with Britt now and her mom is chief of staff, see if she can get some better channels in this place."

"Where's Morgan?"

"Coffee? Breakfast? Change of clothes? I was too busy complaining about the channels, so he knew I was feeling better and decided that I was capable of sitting on the bed without supervision."

Claudia grins at her and walks by her bed. She looked so much better than she did last night and early this morning. Sleep and water was obviously exactly what she needed. When Ava finally does look at her, she grins ear to ear and Claudia is almost instantly confused.

"What?!"

"You got laid."

She says it in a sing songy voice and Claudia covers her eyes with her hand. Thankfully Britt walks in, ultrasound machine in tow. She grabs the paper from the fetal monitor and both women watch as a smile spreads on her face.

"Everything looks great, but I'm gonna keep you here at least until tomorrow for observation."

Ava rolls her eyes.

"You are so lucky we're friends."

Britt laughs, looking to Claudia to make sure it was actually okay to keep her here another night. Claudia just smiles and nods to make Britt feel better.

"Ready to take a look at this baby?"

Ava nods her head as her child's profile appears on the screen. Britt takes measurements upon measurements just to make sure everything is looking okay and there is nothing to worry about.

"Does she check out okay, Britt?"

"Everything looks good, except for your amniotic fluid level. So honestly you do need to stay tonight so we can try and fix that. But otherwise everything is looking much better. Just take an easy today, all right? No getting out of the bed unless you need to use the restroom. Sleep, a lot, please and eat. Have Claudia bring you a cake for all I care as long as calories are going into your body, go it?"

"Loud and clear, boss!"

Ava mock salutes her and all the women laugh. Britt says her goodbyes and then leaves to get back to work, which means Claudia and Ava are left.

"So, as I was saying before the good doctor decided to interrupt, you had sex! I'm assuming with Sonny, considering I know you didn't leave this hospital and Morgan did not leave my side last night. Tell me, tell me!"

"Well there was a lot of kissing and foreplay, which let me tell was not the case when we were married, so I should probably thank Connie or Olivia for that. But anyways and then we had sex. You've had sex with the man, you know what it's like."

"Ugh, don't remind me I did the deed with my daughter's grandfather, just ew. But not ew for you."

Claudia laughs.

"I'm so glad you approve mom."

"So is this going to be a reoccurring thing or was this just a one night stand? Can one have a one night stand with one's baby daddy."

Claudia covers her eyes in embarrassment once again, but no one opens the door to rescue her from the conversation.

"I have no idea. Either you'll be stuck in a house with Ellie's two awkward parents or Ellie's parents who are happily sleeping with each other again."

It's Ava's turn to cover her face.

"I hope it's the latter."


	5. Month 8

**Month 8**

Claudia and Ellie watched as the city of Port Charles grew larger and larger as the plane began its descent. They had traveled to Italy to spend Thanksgiving with Uncle Rudy, because Claudia knew that her daughter really needed to see him and feel normal again for at least a little bit. She had missed her home and honestly the two weeks in Italy had been a needed break away from Sonny. She had missed Ava though and had felt awful about leaving her especially after the miscarriage scare, but the older woman had taken it in stride.

"_So Ellie and I are gonna go to Italy for a few weeks."_

_Claudia didn't really know how to broach the conversation. Sonny had been easy, because she didn't care what he thought, but Ava was different. She hadn't even told Ellie that they were going in case Ava really needed them to stay put, because she would forgo seeing her uncle for Ava._

"_I mean, we totally don't have to if you need me here. I know you and Sonny being alone isn't exactly desirable living conditions for you especially. If it stresses you too much, we'll stay and that's-"_

"_Claudia, shhh. I think I can survive a few weeks with Sonny; after all I did survive four months before you hauled your butt here. It'll work great, because that means Morgan can stay over without us all worrying about confusing Ellie."_

_Since the very beginning of Ellie's life she had never seen a married couple or had the experience of knowing two people who slept in the same bed. When Ava and Morgan had started getting closer, Morgan had asked if he could stay and just sleep in Ava's room. It was a totally innocent request, but all of the adults, mainly Ava and Claudia, had worried what Ellie would think. Ellie understood that Ava was carrying her niece, but the understanding didn't go any further, after all she was only four. _

"_You're sure?"_

_Ava smiles at her._

"_I'm positive, but you're going to miss the big Corinthos Thanksgiving dinner. I mean Carly and Olivia will be there, and you know how much they just love me. You should definitely be jealous of me right now."_

"_I am very jealous that I don't get to witness Olivia and Carly walking on eggshells and being totally uncomfortable around you."_

"Mama, is Auntie Ava going to be at the airport waiting for us?"

Claudia smiles at her daughter as she hears her chomping down on the piece of gum Claudia had given her when the pilot announced their descent. The noise alone would have driven Sonny up a wall, but the added bubbles would have further frustrated him. She has to remind herself to make Ellie spit it out as soon as they land.

"I don't know, baby, but I know daddy will be there and he'll be so excited to see you. You have to make sure to tell him how much you missed him, because your skype calls were definitely not enough for him."

"When are we gonna go back to see Uncle Rudy again?"

Claudia smiles at her.

"Probably not for a while, but before you start school here. Maybe we'll go in June or July and stay for the entire month."

"Can daddy come?"

Claudia furrows her brow, convincing Uncle Rudy to let them return to the States and go in the first place was hard enough. Uncle Rudy hated Sonny, ever since his son almost ended her life. He never would understand why Claudia had taken Ellie and left the safety of their compound, but Claudia understood. She needed to give her daughter a chance of a real life.

"I don't know, Ellie bug. You know how much I love you, right baby?"

"Infinity times infinity?"

She leans down as the little girl nuzzles into her side and kisses the top of her head. She knew being in Port Charles was the right thing for Ellie and she had made friends, at least two more than she had had last time she was there. Johnny not being there was the only problem. She missed her brother more than she let on, but she didn't know if she could just show up at Pentonville to see him.

"That's right, baby, infinity times infinity."

The plane lands and since Sonny had bought first class seats they are the first ones to exit the plane. She picks up Ellie and lets the child's body rest on her hip. She wonders if Sonny will let Ava out of the house just once to welcome them home. She likes to hope that these two weeks have given him time to think about how life will be if he kills Ava, but she doesn't have high expectations of him anymore.

When they finally get to the baggage claim area she sees Sonny standing in the middle of the crowded airport with their bag already sitting by him. Ellie squirms in her arms until Claudia lets her down and she watches as her little girl runs to him, a smile playing on her lips.

"Daddy!"

He picks her up and twirls her. Claudia can't help but smile as she makes her way to them and for just a second they look like a completely normal family. But Sonny doesn't hug or kiss Claudia to welcome her home, instead he focuses most of his energy on their child and she's okay with that- it's how she wants it. She doesn't want to confuse Ellie into thinking her parents are getting together. However, this doesn't stop Sonny from reaching out and pushing Claudia's raven colored hair behind her ear or tracing her jaw bone all the way down to her lips. It's a quick moment, but it's still a moment that makes Claudia look at the ground.

"How's my favorite girl? Ready to go home?"

"Yeah! I wanna see Auntie Ava already."

Claudia watches as his eyes roll and she laughs, he hates how much their daughter loves Ava. Sonny uses his other hand to reach down and grab their rolling suitcase. Claudia follows closely behind them, but stops when they make it to the parking garage. Sonny looks back to see her standing there, looking at his spare cars that he keeps at the garage.

"Claudia?"

"Can I take a car? I need to make a detour."

He nods, slowly, unsure of what this detail entails. She walks over and kisses Ellie on the forehead. The small child is still buzzing with excitement of seeing her father again and doesn't even feel the tension between her parents.

"I'll see you in a little, okay Ellie bug? Mommy has to run an errand."

The little girl nods and hugs her mom's neck. Sonny opens the trunk of the car and puts the suitcase in it, before grabbing Ellie from Claudia again. She's surprised that he didn't bring a driver, but it's nice to see that he can do things without needing a guard. She watches as he puts their little girl in her car seat and closes the door. She goes to walk away, not wanting to discuss this with him, but he grabs her arm.

"What errands do you have to run?"

"I need to go to Pentonville."

He looks confused.

"I need to see Johnny, he doesn't know I'm alive and I've been here for four months, I need to see my little brother."

She pulls at the hem of her shirt; she's not sure why she was so unsure to tell him that she was going to see her brother. It's not like she needed his permission or that she was his prisoner like Ava was, but she was afraid of his judgment.

"Do you need me to go with you?"

She scoffs at him.

"I think I can handle myself, besides we're not taking Ellie to a prison even if it only means she's sitting in the car. I got this. When I get back though, we have to talk, about everything. I can't live in your house without understanding-"

She motions at the air between them.

"This. Us. So can we talk about it?"

He leans in to kiss her and she leans in as well. This is the last thing they need to be doing when neither of them understand the ramifications of their relationship, but they can't help it.

"We'll talk when you get back."

He hands her a key to one of the cars and she clicks the unlock button to see which car it is. Sonny gets into the car with Ellie and drives it out of the lot as Claudia watches them go, her fingertips on her lips. She steels herself knowing that she's going to change her brother's life forever by showing up at the place he'll call home for the next seventeen years.

* * *

When Ava hears the door open all she can do is smile, because finally two of her favorite people are home. Sure Morgan will have to go back to sleeping at the Brownstone, but she's pretty sure she'd rather have Ellie and Claudia here instead. Her and Morgan were still in a fragile place and she didn't like it, it made her uncomfortable no matter how much they loved one another. She stands up when she hears Ellie's feet hit the floor in the foyer.

"Auntie Ava!"

"Ellie!"

The little bundle of energy runs into her aunt's open arms. Ava picks her up even though she really shouldn't because of the width of her stomach, but she's so happy to see the little girl it doesn't even matter. What does matter is that Claudia is nowhere to be seen and Max is the one carrying the suitcase up the stairs. She shoots Sonny a questioning look and he shakes his head. She understands that he doesn't want to address Claudia's location until Ellie is not present.

"You know Elli bug, Elsa and Anna sure did miss you while you were gone, maybe you should go get them and then we can watch the movie with them on the couch here. How does that sound?"

She sees how tired Ellie is and remembers how tired she was when Claudia came back the first time. She's hoping that she'll only have to endure a short amount of _Frozen_ before Ellie falls asleep and Ava can watch her soap operas. Honestly she just wants to have the little girl cuddle into her, because within the next month and a half she may be gone.

"Yeah, I'll go get them and the movie and be right back!"

"Hold on Ellie."

The little girl comes to skidding stop as her father calls out to her just as she is about to run up the stairs. She flicks her head back in order to get her raven locks out of her eyes. She watches as her father walks to her and picks her up. He kisses her forehead.

"I have to go to the office for a little bit, is that okay?"

She nods her head.

"Yeah, I'll be okay with Auntie Ava."

"You be a good girl for Aunt Ava, alright? I love you."

"I love you too, daddy"

He lets her go and watches as she runs up the stairs. It'll take her a few minutes to grab all of her dolls and stuffed toys. Ava watches as Sonny goes to the doors.

"Woah, Sonny, where's Claudia?"

"She went to Pentonville to see her brother. I'm sure she's told you about Johnny. She went to see him, let him know that she's alive. Look, I really do have to go to the office, Claudia should be back soon."

They hadn't really spoken much since Claudia and Ellie had blown into town. They never had really liked each other much, so when Claudia moved in she provided the needed padding for them to never really communicate. Ava looks up when she hears footsteps, expecting to see a blur of Ellie as she runs around placing her toys, but instead she sees Diane Miller.

"Diane, I didn't expect to see you so soon."

"Well, when you said you wanted to go over the details of your will, I thought I should probably just make my way over here now so that we can get it over with. What do you need to change?"

"Well-"

This is when Ellie decides to run down the stairs, nearly falling on one of the last steps, but composing herself. In her arms, she has her Elsa and Anna dolls and the _Frozen _DVD. Ava really doesn't want her to hear this conversation, but eventually she'll have to explain that she won't be around long after the baby is born.

Ellie puts the movie in the DVD player and grabs the remotes to hand to Ava. She then crawls up on the couch, next to Ava, and rests her head on Ava's stomach like she always does. However, she notices that there is another person in the room. Diane smiles at the little girl.

"Hi Ellie, it's good to see you made it home safe and sound from your trip."

Ellie cuddles closer to Ava, she knows Diane, but she is still enough of a stranger to make her nervous. She waves at the lawyer before resting her head and sticking her thumb in her mouth. Ava automatically takes the little girl's thumb out, Claudia had been trying to break her of the habit.

"Well, as I was saying, I obviously need to split the money between Kiki and this baby and the baby's should go into a trust fund to be accessed after she graduates college. I also want to make sure that if I do d-i-e the baby goes to Claudia."

Ellie's head pops up when her mother's name is mentioned and she immediately looks at Ava. Ava smiles down at her and flattens an unruly part of her hair which seems to calm her.

"Sweetie, we're going to start your movie, Ms. Diane and me just have a few more things to go over."

She presses the play button and the movie starts. Diane writes everything down and then hands the papers over to Ava for her to sign. Ava signs them quickly and hands them back to the lawyer.

"All right, I'll get these filed right away. Nice to see you Ms. Jerome. Enjoy the movie, Ellie!"

"Thanks."

Ellie's voice is a whisper and she immediately turns her focus back on the TV. Ava watches as Elsa and Anna's parents' ship gets sunk by a major storm. Ellie looks up at Ava, a questionable look in her eyes.

"Auntie Ava, what happened to Elsa's mommy and daddy?"

Ava takes in a deep breath. After all the times Ellie has watched this movie, she picks now as a good time to ask.

"Well, you see sweetie, their ship sunk when there was a storm and they ended up drowning. They died, baby."

Tears well up in Ellie's eyes, she grabs Ava's neck, wrapping her arms around it. She starts crying. Ava expects to hear her say something about her parents' eventual deaths, but what the little girl says surprises her.

"Don't leave me, Auntie Ava, ever."

* * *

Pentonville was a lot nicer than Claudia had remembered, especially for a prison. She sits at stall number ten, watching through bullet proof glass as prisoners are shuttled in and out on their side of the glass. There is a black telephone to her right that will allow her to talk to her little brother, if he wanted to talk. This was a lot like the Logan Hayes murder charge he had faced, but this time there was no way she could get him out of it. She planned on going to Diane tomorrow and seeing if there was a way for him to get a shorter sentence, seeing as their father had abused both of them for most of their lives.

When she sees him, he hasn't noticed her yet. He has a small amount of facial growing, as if he could care less what he looked like and she figured that was truly the case. When he finally sees her, he's about to sit down and she watches as his eyes grow wide. He looks like he can't believe it. He picks up the phone next to him and she does the same. He knows it's his sister by the way her smile lights up her entire face and her eyes slightly close. It's his sister.

"It's really you?"

"It's really me, John, I'm okay."

"H-How?"

She grins at his naivety.

"You think Uncle Rudy's goons weren't watching me go psycho? They snatched me out of my shallow grave and put a Jane Doe in there. They doctored the DNA tests and everything else. I've been in Italy ever since, I didn't wanna let you go to prison, but Uncle Rudy told me I had to. I'm so sorry, Johnny."

"No, no, Claudia, it's okay. I'm just so happy to see you alive and you look okay. What are you doing here? Does Sonny know? He'll kill you if he finds out you're alive, you need to go back to Italy where you're safe."

"You have a niece, her name is Ellie."

She watches as the information processes.

"She's Sonny's daughter?"

Claudia smiles at him and nods.

"She's beautiful and she reminds me so much of you when you were that age. She's just a ball of energy, all of the time, I can't even get her to sit at a piano to teach her how to play like I did with you."

"Oh come on, you didn't teach me."

She laughs, it's true, Johnny had learned how to play from little music books. He had most definitely not learned from her.

"I wanna meet her one day, but I don't want you to bring her here. She's too small to understand anything we went through as kids or to understand why her uncle is in prison."

She nods.

"I'm going to work with Diane on with getting you released early, okay? I want you to be part of her life and my life again. I don't ever want to be apart from you again, John. I'm going to get you out of here."

He puts his hand up to the glass and she does the same. All she wants to do is hug him. He was always able to put her together when she was falling apart. Johnny had been her sanity for years and she knew that would most likely always be the case, but now other things held her together too.

"If you don't, it's okay. I'm not expecting much except for visits at least every week. I went crazy when I thought you were dead, it was a miracle that Sonny didn't kill me. I begged God to bring you back to me, you being dead tore me to shreds."

She wipes at a few tears that were threatening to fall. She knew her "death" had wrecked him. She had read the court manuscript the day he testified in Sonny's trial. He was bent on sending Sonny away for killing her, he had even lied that Sonny had physically abused her. Sonny may have been abusive in many ways, but he had never laid a hand on her.

"I'm so sorry Johnny, I wanted to write you or call you or anything to tell you that I was alive. I just wanted you to know I was safe and I wanted you to know that you had a niece, but Uncle Rudy told me it was dangerous because if Sonny or Jason had seen that you weren't as upset as you were they could've figured it out. I hated not telling you, but the dust had to settle."

"Claudia, it's okay. I understand it all, I've always understood you and right now I'm just so happy to see you alive I could care less about anything else. I love you, so much."

She smiles through her tears.

"I love you too. Are you doing okay in there?"

He nods.

"It's peachy, the Zacchara name does have some benefits when you're in prison."

"Good to know."

A bell rings, signaling the end of visiting hours. She watches as people start getting up and guards start grabbing the prisoners to take them back to their cells. She didn't want to go, she couldn't leave him again.

"It's okay, sis, I'll be here whenever you want to come by. I'll see you soon, bring some pictures of my niece next time."

A guard grabs him by the arm and hoists him up. Johnny doesn't even flinch but she wants to yell at the man and tell him to get his paws off of her little brother. Another guard starts pushing her forward towards the exit and she begins to go willingly. She needed to get her brother out of there and somehow she would.

* * *

"Baby, it's okay. It's okay, Ellie."

She rocking the small child, trying to calm her any way she knows possible. Ellie starts to calm down as Ava kisses the tears off her cheek. This time when Ellie shoves her thumb in her mouth, Ava doesn't take it out. She knows it's a comforting mannerism to Ellie so she allows it.

"Don't go away like Elsa and Anna's parents."

Ava lets out a deep breath. She can't believe she's about to have this conversation with Ellie, but she knows she needs to. Sometime within in the next month, she was going to disappear from Ellie's life and Ellie needed to know that it was all going to be okay. She gently pushes the little girl's face up so that she can make eye contact with her.

"Ellie, I need you to listen to me, okay?"

Ellie nods her head and continues sucking on her thumb.

"One day, I don't know when, but one day I will have to go away like Elsa and Anna's par-"

"But I don't want you to go."

She brushes some stray hairs behind Ellie's ear.

"Shh, I know and I never wanna leave you either. I love you so much and you have made my life so wonderful and I don't ever want to leave you, but sometimes we don't get the choice. This is one of those times, Ellie bug, and it stinks so much and I don't like it any more than you do. But if I do go away, I need you to do something for me, okay?"

"What?"

"I need you to tell the baby all about me. She already loves you so much and you two will probably be such great friends. Can you do that for me? Tell her all the good stuff like our marathon _Frozen_ watching and bath time and our tea parties."

"I can do that, Auntie Ava."

She kisses the little girl on the top of her head.

"Now should we finish the movie? Your mommy should be home soon."

Before Ellie can even respond both of her parents walk in the room. They notice the tears in both Ava and Ellie's eyes and wonder what happened. Ava shakes her head as if to tell them not to ask their daughter. Ellie jumps off of Ava's lap and goes to hug her mom.

"Hey baby. I see you and Auntie Ava were watching your favorite movie. But I hate to tell you that you're going to go help daddy cook dinner tonight, however you only get to do that if you go take Elsa and Anna back up to your room and return your movie to the movie room."

"Okay mama!"

She jumps down and grabs all of the items mentioned before running up the steps. Claudia looks over at Sonny and grins at him apologetically.

"Sorry, she was going to ask if she could help you cook anyways, I just figured we'd use it to get some information. First of all, hoe come hug me, I've been gone for two stinking weeks."

Ava rolls her eyes before propelling herself off of the couch and hugging her best friend. Claudia rubs her stomach and smiles when the baby kicks her in response. Claudia and Ava both walk over to the couch and plop down on it.

"So why were you guys in tears?"

Ava sighs.

"Well you know the part in the movie when the parents die? Well Ellie asked me where they went and I told her that they passed away and she just started crying. I figured she was upset about the prospect of you two dying, right, cause that would make sense. But instead she told me to not leave her and I had to explain that I would eventually have to leave her and she would be okay."

Claudia shoots a glare Sonny's way before responding.

"And therefore you cried too."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Ellie runs down the stairs as quickly as possible and jumps into Sonny's unsuspecting arms. He grabs her at the last possible moment, not letting her fall to the ground. He looks at the two women on the couch one last time before taking his daughter to the kitchen to cook dinner. Claudia's eyes follow him on instinct and only stop when Ava snaps her fingers in front of her face.

"Claudia, please don't tell me you're falling for him again. I seriously don't know what I'll do if you don't equally hate Sonny with me."

Claudia looks at her and smiles.

"I'm not falling for him, I never fell for him in the first place. I just…I don't know. Our history makes him impossible to like ignore. I hate him for what he's planning on doing to you, but the rest… he gave me my child. Let's stop talking about this, how were your two weeks of Morgan bliss?"

"It was great, amazing. I love having him around, but he was always hovering and I was so thankful you two were coming home today. Gah, I love that boy, but not having my girls was terrible."

"It's like you need Morgan in little bits, just like I need Sonny in tiny bits, mostly with his pants off."

Ava laughs.

"This is why you're my freaking best friend, you get me. But work on your boy toy, because he doesn't like producing words when you're not around. I swear Claudia he hates me and my guts still."

"Well, it doesn't matter, cause I love you and your bitchy guts and so does Ellie. Me and my kid are going to save your butt I promise."

"I'm holding you to that."

* * *

Claudia and Sonny had decided to put Ellie to bed together that night, mainly because they were still worried about the death talk she had with Ava earlier that day. There had been rearranged stuffed animals, stories read, glasses of water, and three bathroom breaks. She kept refusing to go to sleep and Claudia could not understand why. Claudia smoothed down the child's hair and kissed the tip of her nose as Sonny sat on the other side of the bed.

"Baby, what do you need? It's getting late."

"I want Auntie Ava."

"Honey, Auntie Ava is in bed, she needs to sleep."

"I want Auntie Ava."

Claudia hangs her head, why was her child choosing to get close to Ava right now. She didn't know what to do. She had promised Ava that she would help her escape, but that didn't mean Ellie would see Ava after the baby was born. Sonny leaves the bed and she listens as his footsteps go further down the hall to Ava's room. He knocks on the door and she can hear their mumbled voices. Ava's heavy footfall can be heard getting closer and closer to Ellie's room.

"Auntie Ava!"

Ava walks in and sits right next to Ellie on the bed. Ellie immediately grabs one on Ava's hands tightly. Claudia looks back to see Sonny standing at the doorway, he looks about has confused as she is.

"What's wrong, my sweet? You usually don't need me to help you go to sleep, your mommy and daddy usually do a great job."

"Promise you'll be there when I wake up in the morning?"

Both Ava and Claudia hear Sonny illicit a deep sigh and neither of them can blame him. Ava leans down and kisses Ellie's forehead, making sure every piece of her hair is in place. She grabs the stuffed dog Ellie is particularly fond of and puts him next to her, under the comforter.

"Of course, sweetie, I'll be here. I'll probably still be in bed when you wake up, because you always get up so early. But I'll make you a deal, okay? If you go to sleep right now, you can come cuddle with me tomorrow morning and maybe we can even have a picnic outside near the pond. You have to sleep now. I love you so very much, Ellie bug."

The adults watch as she yawns and turns on her side to cuddle with a pile of stuffed animals, but especially the dog Ava had put under the comforter.

"I love you too."

What seems like seconds later, Ellie is out like a light. The adults leave the room, but only after flicking on one of her nightlights. They close the door, but not all the way, allowing for a sliver of the hallway light shine in. Ava bids both of them good night before retreating to her room and closing the door completely. Claudia begins to go to her room, forgetting that just earlier today she had asked if her and Sonny could talk. He gently grabs her wrist.

"You wanna come to my room, ya know, to talk."

She nods and lets him lead her to his room. When he opens the door, she's not surprised to see that the room hasn't changed at all. She lets out a small laugh and he turns to look at her.

"You haven't changed anything in here."

"You know me, never was one for change."

She goes over and flops on his bed. She's so tired that she doesn't know if she has the ability to talk to him about anything or do anything else that he may have in mind. She feels the bed shift as he sits down next to her.

"You're tired, do you wanna talk later?"

She shakes her head and sits up on the bed.

"No, no, no. We need to talk about this now. I need to know what's going on here, between us. I never know what's going on between us. I came back expecting you to hate me, to hate my guts, to want to kill me, but here we are and we had sex and you kissed me when I came home. Are you just going to use me like you did last time and then throw me out when you're done with me? Because if that's the case then I'll take my daughter and my best friend and you won't stop me."

He reaches out to cup her face, his thumb rubbing her cheek bone. She leans into it and she hates that he has that effect on her.

"I don't want you to go, okay? I don't hate you at all, not even the tiniest little bit. I don't know what we're doing, but I know that when I'm with you I feel alive again. You make me feel alive, Claudia, and that's what I need."

He leans in to kiss her and she responds, like she always does. He's pinning her down and kissing her in all the right places on her neck and gently biting her ear. She's moaning into their kiss and he's smiling in return. Their bodies are molding together as if they were meant for one another and no one else. Claudia knows she should pull away, because they didn't solve anything, but it's so different this time. There are no secrets to keep her from him this time, so she doesn't let anything stop her just for now.

* * *

After, she's resting her head on his chest and he's tracing circles on her lower back and finally she feels like all the pieces are coming together. They could work together and they both know it, because they've experienced it. Before the truth came out and she had saved his life by pulling a gun right when she needed to. They could be so much more powerful together then they ever could be apart. There is still something that's holding her up, however.

"Don't kill Ava, Sonny."

She expects her voice to be a whisper, but instead it is strong even though she feels so weak lying beside him. He makes her heart race and her stomach drop, but she's not in love; she'll never admit it anyways. He makes her feel alive, too.

"I see your post-sex pillow talk has so improved over the last five years."

For a second he's blinded by jealousy. Who else had warmed her bed while she was in Italy? How many men had used her and then disposed of her like he once had? He didn't know why it mattered so much to him, but it did.

"Sonny, seriously. If you hurt her, I'll leave, I will take Ellie and leave. I can't do this if you're going to murder my best friend, I have too much self respect for myself for that. I have changed from that woman five years ago who was so desperate for your approval."

She wraps the sheet around her body and stands up. She collects her discarded clothes and puts them on quickly.

"Claudia, stay, ple-"

She doesn't even look at him.

"My loyalty is to Ava, so until I know you're not going to hurt her, I can't stay in this room with you."

She throws the sheet over her shoulder at him and exits the room, leaving him there watching the door. He doesn't know what to do, because he needs to avenge Connie. They had gone through so much and finally he had her and they were happy. Then Ava killed her and they had no chance, but now Claudia was back. She was the only one who had ever understood his life and never tried to change him. They had been good for each other all those years ago and now when he was with her, he felt a rush- it was like freefalling.

But he didn't know if his need for Claudia was greater than his need for revenge.


	6. Month 9

**Month 9**

Claudia's legs were shaking as she drank her coffee at the breakfast table. Her and Sonny were the only ones up and the sun was just rising. It was December, ten days until Christmas day to be exact, but more importantly Ava's due date was rapidly approaching. She was due in two days and Claudia barely had a plan in place. Ava had a doctor's appointment today just to make sure everything was okay and she was ready to deliver. Claudia knew she could go into labor today or in a week, due dates were just an estimate, but she still felt like the time was ticking away. Her eyes shift over to Sonny, who is sipping his coffee and reading the paper.

"Are you sure you trust me enough to take Ava to the doctor all by myself? I mean what if my nine month pregnant best friend overtakes me and steals my car? Then I know you really will hate me."

His eyes look up from the paper and a scowl spreads across his face. Ever since she left after they had sex nearly a month ago, they had been on a rocky road, but they still were having sex- actually Sonny was coming on to her and she was constantly giving in against her better judgment.

"Claudia, if I didn't trust you I would be going with and watching both of you like a hawk, but I do need to go to work and I do trust you. You asked me to trust you all those years ago and now I do."

She looks down at her empty coffee cup and then at her pajama clad legs. She needs to go get dressed and wake Ellie to take her to Carly's house for a play date with Josslyn. Claudia was going to be busy for most of the day, planning Ava's escape and she didn't want her daughter to feel neglected. She puts her coffee cup down on the table, the cup making a distinctive bang, before standing.

"I don't know if I really need your trust anymore."

She goes to walk away but his voice beckons her back.

"It this how we're going to be until I make up my mind about Ava?"

Her head snaps back at him and a scowl spreads across her face. But she does not move from her spot in the kitchen doorway. Usually if they fight it only ends in two ways- sex or anger where they end up not speaking for days.

"Yes, Sonny, this is the way it is going to be until you make up your mind about Ava and if you make the wrong decision about Ava this is how it will stay until I can get a flight out of the states. I shouldn't have to keep repeating this ultimatum."

"Well, keep saying it and I may believe it."

Her eyes narrow in his direction and she knows he's joking, because he does believe her, but the joke isn't funny. She wants to smack him across the face like she did all those years ago, but she can't. She knows what he went through as a child and she knew raising her hand at him would not be okay.

"Why did I ever think we could work this time around? You're still the same self-righteous bastard you were all those years ago, just with a few more wrinkles and more stubborn than you were. It's not good for anyone to be around you anymore, Sonny."

She turns on her heel and walks out of the room, but she still hears his deep intake of breath. It's frustrating to her to feel the way she does about him. If he does kill Ava, if somehow her plans fall through, she will never forgive him and her heart will break in two by taking their daughter and leaving him, but she knows that's how it'll have to be. Even if her plan does work, she and Ellie will still have to leave him in order to get Ava and the baby out of the country. Either way, they'll continue to be star-crossed lovers and nothing more.

She takes a deep breath before walking up the stairs and knocking on Ava's door twice before opening it. Ava is still asleep, her mouth slightly open with drool dripping from her mouth. Claudia is tempted to take a picture as best friend blackmail, but she figures that Ava has enough going against her right now. She doesn't want to wake her, because at nine months pregnant, she knows how exhausted the older woman is. But her appointment was in two and half hours and she would not get up by herself these days, which ultimately made it Claudia's job.

She walks over to the side of the bed and sits down next to her. At these moments, she's thankful that Sonny confiscated all of her guns, because when people used to shake Claudia awake they often found a gun pulled on them. She gently shakes her shoulder and Ava's snoring stops and is instead replaced with a groan.

"Claudia."

She moans, her eyes barely opening before she rubs the sleep away. She doesn't even sit up, because with her stomach the size that it is, she's placed in more of a permanent lounge position. Claudia smiles gently down at her, hoping that it will improve her mood, not that it actually does.

"Come on, your appointment is in two and a half hours and I have to go out before that, so we don't have time for you to act like a five year old, mom."

Ava's eyes shoot open when Claudia says she has things to do before the doctor's appointment. Claudia rolls her eyes at her best friend's noisiness. Ava always needed explanations and information, but Claudia couldn't get too mad because she was exactly the same way.

"Where do you have to go?"

Claudia shakes her head.

"You don't need to know yet, part of my master plan."

"If this master plan is a plan to save my life shouldn't I be a part of it? Or at least know half of what is going on in that head of yours? Even if this master plan isn't to save my life, I should still know cause I'm your best-slash-only friend."

Claudia stands and shoots her hands out to help Ava get up. She sways momentarily, so Claudia holds onto her for a little bit longer to make sure she doesn't fall. An early trip to the hospital, plus the stress that could put Ava into labor, was not in Claudia's plans- she was assuming she at least had two days.

"You are an integral part of my master plan, babe, and right now your part is getting dressed and forcing Sonny or someone to make you breakfast, because you're pregnant and shouldn't be on your feet for too long. That's all I need from you, okay? I have to go wake Ellie and get her dressed. You may be at the house with Sonny alone for a little bit, but he's going to work and I'll be back as soon as-"

"Claudia?"

"Hmmm?"

"You're hurting my arms."

The younger woman looks down and realizes that she is still holding onto Ava's arms and quite tightly at that. She apologetically grins as she lets go of Ava's arms. Ava shakes them gently and returns as much of a smile as possible. If the birth of her child didn't sign her death certificate, she would want her out now, the last month or more of pregnancy was always the worst.

"Okay, I'm gonna go. Be ready in about two hours, kay?"

"Yeah, yeah, get out of here."

Claudia smiles at her before running out of the room, closing the door behind her with a slight bang, and going to Ellie's room down the hall. She doesn't knock on her daughter's door, but when she opens it she finds Ellie already dressed in a winter dress with tights, but she's having difficulty with the shoes. The child looks up at her mother with a big toothy grin and Claudia can't help but smile back at her daughter as she sits on the floor with her feet sticking out.

"Mama, I can't figure out my shoes."

Claudia kneels down next to her and kisses her temple, running her fingers gently through the little girl's tangled hair. She knows she still needs to brush her hair and help her brush her teeth, but she can't believe how quickly she's growing up. She takes the shoes from Ellie and puts the correct shoe on the correct foot. Ellie looks at her feet and smiles.

"There ya go, baby! Now we just have to brush your teeth without getting toothpaste everywhere like you and Auntie Ava did yesterday, cause mommy really doesn't want to have to clean that up again and you don't wanna take another bath, especially this morning."

"Mama, what about breakfast? I'm hungry this morning."

Ellie was always hit and miss when it came to breakfast. Some days she was extremely hungry and wanted to eat everything in the morning, but other days eating something in the morning would make her sick. So Claudia was never sure whether or not to have breakfast ready for her.

"Well, how about I take you to eat breakfast with Spencer before you go play with Joss? And that means you get to take the ferry boat again."

"Okay, let's go brush my teeth!"

* * *

Claudia had managed to get her and Ellie out of the house without Sonny hearing them, which meant there were no questions as to why she was going to batman's house for breakfast. She really just needed to talk to Britt, but if she could enlist Nikolas' help as well it would be even better. They were almost at the launch on the island and Claudia wonders if Britt will kill her for showing up at this time, asking for more help and for them to feed her child.

"Mommy, I love riding the boat."

Claudia smiles down at her as they walk to castle door.

"You know daddy and your brothers have a bunch of boats, maybe if you ask nicely they'll take you out on one of them. I'm sure you could have a lot of fun, baby girl."

"Can Auntie Ava come?"

"Maybe, baby."

Ellie reaches out and rings the doorbell when they reach the door. She's learned now that she's only supposed to ring the doorbell once unless there's no answer and then it is acceptable to ring it again. But a second ring is not necessary, because Britt answers the door with one half of her hair straightened while the other half is in disarray.

"Claudia…? Hey Ellie, Spencer is in the breakfast area, why don't you go get some breakfast with him?"

Claudia and Britt watch as Ellie runs down the hallway and they listen to the kids mumbling to one another.

"I'm sorry just to show up unannounced like this."

Britt shrugs, she's used to Claudia acting strange at times and this was just one of those times.

"It's fine, why don't you come upstairs? Nikolas and I are just getting ready and if I stop to talk I'm going to be terribly late."

Claudia follows Britt up to her and Nikolas' room and Claudia is surprised to find that it, just like Sonny's room, has not changed. Britt motions to the chair by the dresser and Claudia sits down as Britt continues to straighten her unruly hair.

"Okay, so what's wrong? I feel like something's wrong. You wouldn't show up like this, with this stressed out look on your face, if something wasn't wrong. What can I do?"

Claudia pulls on a string that's hanging on her sweater, she doesn't know how to say that a man she's very possibly on love with may kill her best friend. So she just blurts it out because Britt is used to her doing that.

"Sonny is going to kill Ava as soon as she has the baby and I need your help to save her."

"Wha…I thought you and Sonny were tog-"

Before Britt can let out a coherent thought, Nikolas walks into the room.

"Who are we saving? Hey babe, hi Claudia."

He kisses Britt and they both hear how surprised he sounds to see Claudia at their home at such an early hour. But she knows he'll help, because he kept her secret all those years ago. He could've gone to Jason and Sonny and signed her death certificate, but he didn't and he didn't judge her for what she had done. She wasn't going to tell them what Ava had done or what Sonny had done, because it could risk both of them and she couldn't do that.

"Hey batman. I need help getting Ava and her baby out of the country the day the baby is born."

Britt puts the finishing touches to her makeup and gives her undivided attention to Claudia, Nikolas does the same as they sit down on their bed.

"Are we saving her from Sonny? What do you need from us?"

Nikolas is the one who asks, mainly because they all know Britt will help any way she can.

"Of course from Sonny, Nikolas, who else would wanna kill Ava? Okay, Claudia, what's the plan?"

Claudia takes a deep breath; they're going to think she's going crazy, but actually

Nikolas may expect this from her.

"Can Ava give birth here? Like when she goes into labor can I bring her here instead of the hospital? God, I know this is a big request but I will pay whatever it takes to get my uncle's private plane here to fly her to Italy. Please you guys, he's going to kill her and I can't let that happen."

Britt runs her hand through her hair and lets out a deep breath.

"Claudia, it's…you bringing her here and us getting you guys a plane is fine, we would be okay with it, but because of Ava's situation in what we call "advanced maternal age" she can't give birth here, it's too dangerous for her and the baby. We'll have to figure out a way to get her and the baby here."

"I'll need someone to get Ellie, I can't leave the country without my daughter."

"I'll get her, Claudia, you just have to tell me where she is and I'll get her, bring her to Wyndemere where she's safe. She'll stay with me and Spencer until Ava has the baby. My private plane will be here, it would be less suspicious for me just to keep it here than to have your uncle fly his in."

Claudia nods.

"And I'll get the baby out of the hospital after I take her to the nursery to get checked out, that just leaves you with Ava. You can take her out the other door about ten minutes after she has the baby, but you'll have to be careful with her."

"Okay, so we're doing this? And you guys are okay with helping me? I mean Britt, you taking a baby from the nursery, you could get in some serious trouble. I don't want any of you to get hurt for me and Ava. I don't want to drag you into her-our mess."

"Well I've always been part of your mess before, might as well keep up my streak."

She smiles over at Nikolas, Britt of course has no idea what they're talking about, but she knows that Nikolas truly means what he's saying. He kept her secret when he didn't have to, when he barely even knew her.

"And you know I'm game, you're one of my only friends, I can't say no to you."

Claudia grins at them before checking her watch. She needs to get Ellie back to the mainland so she can take her to Josslyn's house. She also needs to get Ava to the hospital and Britt needs to get to work. She hugs each of them.

"I should get Ellie and take her to Carly's house, plus you probably need to get to work."

Britt nods.

"We can take the launch together. Let's go get Ellie or else we'll both be late."

* * *

Ava is sitting on the patio furniture outside when she sees Claudia's car pull into the driveway. They smile at each other, making eye contact through pairs of sunglasses. Ava puts her hands out so that Claudia can help her stand up, which she does. Claudia notices how upset Ava looks and she squeezes her hand reassuringly.

"What's wrong, babe?"

She walks beside her as they make their way, very slowly, to the car.

"I think I'm in labor, Claudia, like really, really early stages, but still labor, but it could be Braxton hicks, I have no idea."

Ava gets in the passenger side of the car and Claudia stands by the open door. She has to believe that this plan will work, but it might not and her best friend might die. She steps closer to the SVU and rests her head on Ava's shoulder, Ava's head rests on her's and for a while they just stay like this. But then the clock shows that they may late to the appointment. So Claudia walks around and gets into the drivers side. The drive is quiet for a while until Claudia decides to speak.

"There's a plan in order, we're going to Italy, to my uncle's compound, after the baby is born. You'll be safe there. But you can't come back here, we may be able to get Morgan to come eventually, but there's no coming back here for either of us."

"Ellie's coming too, right?"

"Of course, I wouldn't leave without her."

"But, Claudia…"

"There's no buts, Ava, not in this situation. If I don't get you out of here, Sonny will kill you and I will not let that happen and I can't let it happen. My daughter would be so upset, I would be in shambles, your daughter wouldn't know her mother and I can't deal with that."

"You love Sonny, I see it every single time you look at him, and I can't take you away from him."

Once they're at a red light, Claudia looks over at the older woman.

"Do you understand that if he kills you I'll lose both of you? Not just him and not just you, but both of you. If I get you out of here, I'll at least have you and that is enough for me. I'll have you and Ellie will have you and you'll be able to raise your little girl. That is enough for me. It will hurt to leave him again, but I will do it. This is all I want, just please let me do this, please Ava."

They make eye contact and Ava smiles slightly at her, knowing that her best friend will not back down from this idea. Ava knows that Claudia wants to try and save her so she's going to let her, because she doesn't know what else to do.

"Okay, we'll do this your way."

* * *

The doctor's appointment had gone well and Britt had been nearly positive that Ava was not in labor, but that the contractions she was feeling were totally Braxton hicks. They had gone through the rest of their day without a hitch, Claudia was even able to pick Ellie up early from Joss' and bring her home. Dinner had been eaten all together, even Morgan, Michael, and Kiki came over, somehow Ellie had managed to not notice the awkwardness or maybe she just didn't care. Claudia liked to believe that having most of her family under one roof made her so happy that she didn't even realize the tension. Claudia wanted her to enjoy the last few moment she had with her family, because soon enough she'd be ripping the family Ellie had come to know and love away from her. She felt horrible, but she knew there was no other way.

Ellie hadn't even had a chance to meet Kristina yet, which Claudia hated, but she had met Molly and they had hit it off. She had such a good support system here, one Claudia could never dream of giving her back in Italy, but her, Ava, and the new baby would have to do. It would be okay or at least that's what she kept telling herself, because it was the only thing that made her feel better.

God, she would miss Sonny. Sure Ellie would miss her father terribly, but Claudia thought for sure that she would miss him more if it were possible. She didn't know where these feelings had come from, but today as she talked about smuggling Ava out of the country she realized that if this were to happen she would never see Sonny again. Never hear his voice again or feel his fingertips lightly tap against her skin. She would never feel their bodies mold together and feel the tingle of her lips after he kissed her, but she had to do this for Ava. What she had said earlier to her best friend was true. She was willing to give up possible happiness with Sonny for Ava, of course women like Claudia never really got to be happy. It was an unspoken rule somewhere; she just hadn't found the book yet.

"Claudia…?"

She hears Ava's voice right outside of her door, but her name comes out of Ava's mouth as a moan and that's when she knows. It's time for Ava to have her baby girl and even though she believed she would have one last true moment with Sonny this is it. She slips on the sweatpants she always wears to bed and shoves any thing that can't be replaced into her bag. Her and Ava had already done the same thing for Ava earlier so that they were prepared.

When she opens the door, Ava is in a swat position, breathing as deeply as possible. Claudia puts her shoulder under Ava's and grabs her hospital bag from her hand. With an excited smile, they walk downstairs to the door and get Ava situated in the car.

"I have to go wake, Sonny, and tell him to get Ellie to Carly's. I'll be back soon."

As soon as she closes the car door, her phone is out and speed dial number three is pressed.

"_Ava's in labor already?"_

Britt sounds groggy and annoyed. She had been hoping that Ava would go into labor during the afternoon or late morning- a time where she didn't have to take the launch to get to the hospital.

"Yeah, sorry, she seems to progressing pretty quickly- I don't think her water broke yet, however. Look tell batman that Ellie will be at Carly's house, telling my ex-husband to take her straight to Wyndemere would raise too many suspicions on our part. If he just tells her that I said I wanted her to spend time at your place, because she has her own room or something, I'm pretty sure Carly will believe him. See you soon?"

"_Just as soon as I can get there, Nikolas will be at Carly's house as soon as he can to pick up Ellie. Your daughter won't fall through the cracks in this plan, Claudia, I promise you on Ben's life."_

Earlier that day, the three of them had talked about this master plan and Claudia had voiced her own concerns that somehow they would have to leave without Ellie. Britt had understood and promised her that Nikolas would get Ellie to Spoon Island as soon as he could. Claudia trusted both of them so much that it was hard not to believe.

The line goes dead as Claudia climbs the stairs of the mansion for possibly the last time. She tries to ignore the aching feeling in her heart and just keeps walking until she hits his room. She knocks twice before going in and shaking him awake.

"Claudia…?"

"Ava is in labor, I need you to take Ellie to Carly's and call Morgan so that I can focus all my attention on her, okay?"

"Yeah, I got it."

Just before she walks away, he grabs her wrist and pulls her to him to kiss her. She's not expecting it and it's definitely not the time to be kissing, but she sinks into it for just a second because she knows it may be the last time she kisses him. Before he's ready to release her she pulls back.

"My best friend is having a baby and this isn't the time for this."

He watches her as she goes and deep down he knows that after the baby is born she's going to leave, with or without Ava.

* * *

The nurses had hooked Ava up to all sorts of contraptions for the baby and for her. Claudia knew she was terrified, she had to be. If their plan didn't work then Ava's life was slowly slipping away in these moments. Between the labor and the breathing, she was dying and neither of them wanted to think about it like that.

"Claudia, I have to tell you something."

Her breath is uneven and Claudia is wiping a wet rag across her forehead trying to keep her cool. She keeps looking back at the door, waiting for Britt or Sonny or Morgan to rush in here, but none of them are here yet.

"What's wrong? Can it wait? You have all the time in the world after this little girl is born."

Ava grabs her wrist and doesn't let her dip the rag in the cold water again.

"If this doesn't work, if Sonny…if Sonny kills me, the baby…"

She stops speaking as a contraction rips through her body, Claudia lets her squeeze her hand before turning to a nurse.

"Where is Dr. Westbourne? She should've been here by now!"

The nurse's eyes go wide as Claudia yells at her.

"I'll call her right now."

The woman runs out of the room and Claudia turns back to Ava.

"What were you saying, Ava?"

"If I die, you get the baby- it's in my will, that you take her, because I only trust you with this sweet little baby girl. Take her away from here, don't let Sonny get near her, swear to me."

"Ava…"

"Swear to me, Claudia!"

Claudia's eyes get wide just as the nurse's eyes had earlier, mainly because Ava had never yelled at her, but she understood. She was in pain, she was in labor and she was possibly going to be murdered. She was scared and Claudia understood.

"I swear on Ellie's life, Ava, if you don't make it I will take our girls far away from this place where they are safe."

Ava nods and close her eyes, laying her head back on the lumpy pillow. Claudia turns as Britt runs into the room, grabbing the papers running from the machine. She nods and smiles approvingly.

"Sorry, I'm so late. The boat wasn't running, so we had to get someone to bring another one to the island. It was a big mess."

"Royal issues there."

Ava mumbles, eyes still closed, but a smile dances on her lips. The other women look at each other and share a small smirk. She's in a bunch of pain and still able to be a smart ass, that's what they loved most about Ava. Britt checks Ava's progress before speaking.

"All right, well you are most definitely in labor."

"Thank you Captain Obvious."

Britt lightly hits Ava's forearm.

"Okay, smart ass, will you shut it and listen for a second? You're pretty far along and because of our plan, I really can't give you an epidural or else you won't be able to walk out of here. So just stay relaxed and let Claudia dab your face with the wet rag, I'll be back to check on you in a little bit, okay?"

"Mhmm."

Britt squeezes Claudia's shoulder before walking out of the room. For a little while it's just her and Ava with no nurses or other hospital personnel, it's calm and Ava is doing well with breathing through the pain. After some time, though, Morgan runs through the door and Claudia can see Sonny standing outside of the room. She won't leave Ava, though; she has to be here when Ava sends Morgan out of the room, because she knows that will be hard for her. Claudia watches quietly as Morgan kisses Ava.

"Can you believe that our little girl is almost here? Ava, you've made me so happy. I love you so much."

She watches as Ava cups his face, but her eyes hold so much pain, because she has to leave him and take his daughter from him. Claudia wonders why she left the baby to her, but then she understands that Morgan would keep the baby here and he would let Sonny and Carly be around her.

"I love you too Morgan, more than anything."

* * *

**Five Hours Later**

"Aghhh, I need to push, I need to push, Claudia, get Britt, please."

Claudia stands from the chair she was sitting in and pops her head out of the room in order to call Britt in. Britt rushes in and checks Ava's progress again. She drops part of the bed and gets Ava's feet into the stirrups. The nurses prepare themselves and finally Britt looks at Ava's labor "plan". Her eyes shift to Morgan. She knows Ava and Claudia won't have the heart to tell him to get out so she will.

"Morgan, I'm sorry but Claudia is the only one listed to be in the room for the birth, you have to leave."

He looks at Ava, but he's not hurt. They were on the rocks and that's when she made the very short list, he knows it. He knows that she doesn't want him to see her so vulnerable. He'll get to see his daughter soon enough and if he doesn't get to see her born it's okay. He kisses her forehead and whispers encouraging words in her ear.

"I'll see you soon, I love you. Claudia, you keep her safe."

"I will, Morgan."

She smiles at her former stepson, hoping that when this is all over, Morgan will understand that she was doing just that- keeping Ava safe.

When he's gone, Claudia steps up to Ava's side and grabs her hand. They share a smile and Claudia is amazed that her best friend can even smile right now. She feels the fear radiating off of her, however.

"Ava on your next contraction I need you to bear down and push as hard as you can."

Ava nods just as a contraction comes. She squeezes the life out of Claudia's hand as she pushes as hard as possible. Claudia smiles as Britt informs them that she sees a head of blond hair. Seconds pass and Ava pushes again and again. The contractions are coming one on top of another and Ava is crying out in pain, but soon her cries are replaced by a newborn's cries. Ava falls back on the bed, releasing Claudia's hand as her child is placed on her chest.

"Oh my gosh, hi baby, hi my beautiful baby girl. I'm your mommy and I love you so much."

Claudia watches as tears pour out of her best friend's eyes and she kisses her daughter's head. Claudia grabs a blanket from the nurse and tries to clean the baby, while Britt stands on Ava's other side and does the same thing. The nurses leave, because they aren't needed since Claudia and Britt are doing what they usually do. They make eye contact and Claudia knows that Britt has to take the baby, because Sonny will soon be bursting in here after he sees his granddaughter.

"Ava…"

The older woman looks up at her two friends and she knows. She looks down at the baby and kisses her head and hands.

"Mama will see you soon, my sweet little one. Okay, okay, you can take her. Let Morgan see her, please."

"I will, don't you worry. Claudia, you have to get her out of here, through that door over there. I can't guarantee how long you have once I leave this room. Nik has a car waiting for you out back."

They watch as she wraps the baby up and takes her out of the room. Ava watches them until they're out of sight and Claudia sees the tears starting to form. She gets Ava's feet out of the stirrups and grabs the sweatpants Ava will have to put on.

"You're going to see her again, so no crying, none. Get these on, we have to go. I know you're exhausted and I understand, but we have to get you out of here before Sonny strong arms his way past the old Zacchara guards I have outside. Come on, Ava, we can do this."

Ava nods, steels herself, and slips on the sweatpants. She so sore, but she manages to only let out a single moan. She takes a deep breath, knowing that Britt will get her daughter to the island. Claudia gets on her one side to support her and they open the side door ready to leave, but Claudia stops, leaning Ava against the doorframe, turns around and pulls her gun. When Ava looks up she sees Sonny standing on the other side of the room, holding his own gun.

"Claudia, I can't let you take her away. You'll take her to your uncle's compound, I know that much."

Claudia's gun doesn't shake and she doesn't waver. She puts herself between the end of Sonny's gun and Ava; she looks at Sonny defiantly.

"I'm not gonna let you murder my best friend."

"You'll have to shoot me then, I won't let you leave."

Claudia doesn't look at Ava, but the older woman knows that Claudia is starting to cry. She feels Claudia's confusion coming off of her in waves and watches as her legs start to shake. She grabs Claudia's side, trying to steady her.

"Sonny…"

Her voice comes out as a tortured whisper, but he doesn't respond.

"Don't make me do this."

Her body has stopped shaking and her voice is strong. She'll shoot him somewhere not deadly just so she and Ava can get away. She looks in his eyes and sees that there are tears in his eyes.

"I don't wanna lose you."

"Let us go then."

"I can't- Connie deserves more."

"Ava's suffered enough. Think of your son and your granddaughter. Think of Ellie and me. We need Ava."

She hears footsteps behind her, but she can't look, because she has to keep her eyes on Sonny. Ava looks back to see the prince behind her, so she whispers who it is in Claudia's ear.

"Batman, what are you doing here? You had another job."

She struck with fear that maybe Carly wouldn't let Ellie leave with him and that this whole plan might be over if it means she doesn't have her daughter.

"My job is complete. She's with Spencer, she's safe."

He whispers this to her, because he doesn't want Sonny to hear him and go into a blind rage. Nikolas thinks he has to know that they have Ellie, because Sonny has to know that Claudia won't leave without her daughter.

"Cassadine, I should've known you were a part of this."

"Sonny, leave him alone."

Nikolas puts a hand on her shoulder, letting her know it's okay.

"Claudia, give me the gun and get Ava out of here. Everything is ready. You have to go."

"No, Sonny will shoot you and not think twice about it, but…But if the feelings he thinks he has for me are true, then he won't shoot me."

_They're laying in bed together and he knows that soon she's going to get up and go across the hall after ranting about how this is wrong and how they need to stop, but right now she's here and it's wonderful. He has to say it._

"_Claudia, I think I love you."_

Sonny puts his gun on the bed and raises his hands above his head. Claudia watches him in awe as he backs up to the door. His eyes say what his mouth won't and she resists the urge to run to him. She has to get Ava out of here. She puts her gun back into its holster and turns to Ava. Her and Nikolas get on either side of her and exit the room.

She looks back only once to see his eyes following her.

* * *

At Wyndemere, they're all preparing to leave for Italy. The Cassadine family has decided that they want to take an Italian vacation, mainly because when they told Spencer that Ellie was going back to Italy for good he practically had a fit. They decided to leave in the morning, because there was no way of Sonny making it to the island. Ava and all the kids were in bed, Nikolas had retired as well, but Britt and Claudia had stayed awake. Claudia held a mug of tea in her hands as she watched as it started to drizzle outside. She found it was fitting that the weather was as it was outside.

"Claudia?"

"Hmm?"

"You love Sonny, don't you? Nikolas said the way you were looking at him…"

"I don't know, I just know never seeing him again will be awful."

"Well it's your lucky day."

She hears his voice and pulls her gun, moving over to Britt in order to protect her. Sonny lifts up his hands just like he did in the hospital room. She puts her gun away and just looks at him.

"Britt, can you…?"

"Yeah, I'll be in the other room if you need me."

"How'd you get here, Sonny? The launch wasn't even running."

"I brought my boat out of storage."

"Why?"

He walks to her and pulls her body close to his. Her body flushes against his. She takes a deep breath, her heart is pounding, and her stomach is dropping. She waits for him to pull her into a kiss, but he doesn't.

"I am in love with you, I have been in love with you since I saw you standing there in my living room. I don't want you to leave me alone here. I won't kill Ava, she can go live with Morgan and their daughter-"

"Anna, her name is Anna."

He smiles.

"She can live with Morgan and Anna. I'll let it go, because even if Connie was a live I would want to be with you."

She pulls him closer and kisses him.

* * *

The next day, everything seems lighter. Everyone had slept at Wyndemere and that day they were leaving to go home. Ava would stay at Sonny's for a little while, until Morgan was finished the Brownstone. Claudia comes downstairs and sees Ava sitting on the couch.

"Hey where's Anna?"

"She's still sleeping. You know you're the best friend I've ever had."

Claudia hugs her.

"I'm the only best friend you've ever had, don't lie."

"Well you've ruined anyone else for me."

They sit down together and Claudia knocks her shoulder with Ava's.

"You've ruined everyone else for me too."

**The End**


End file.
